


Liberating Galaxies

by SpyroForLife



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Eventual Smut, Freedom Fighters, M/M, Military Training, Rebels, Redemption, Slow Burn, Somewhat OOC Zim, ZaDr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-04
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-09-22 01:36:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9576062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyroForLife/pseuds/SpyroForLife
Summary: What started out as a simple trip to rescue GIR from botnappers quickly turns Zim's entire life upside-down when he finds that he was taken by a rebel group who plans to fight back against the Irken Empire and liberate all the planets they've conquered. Zim is convinced by Dib and their leader to take their side, but will they be able to make a difference? Or will they be destroyed like everyone else who dares challenge the Empire? Only one way to find out.





	1. Botnapping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got an urge to write for this fandom after ages, so here we go. Tagged with violence for later chapters. It's been a while since I've written for these characters so criticism is very appreciated. I hope you enjoy.

“What are we doing out here so late, Master?” GIR asked, rubbing at his optic. He had pulled his hood down to do so, and Zim shot him a look.

“Pull your hood back on before you’re seen,” he hissed, before looking back at the scanner in his hands.

GIR tugged his disguise back on. “I’m tired,” he complained.

“You don’t need to sleep, GIR, you’re a robot,” Zim said impatiently.

“I do too!”

Zim didn’t feel like arguing with him. He began tuning the scanner. “The reason we’re out here is because my base picked up on a strange wave of radiation. Health-wise it isn’t a concern, it was infrared, but… Its frequency seemed to suggest it wasn’t natural. Like… Like someone scanned the planet like it was one big barcode. But what were they looking for? And who are they?”

“I dunno.” GIR slowly laid down, crossing his arms under his head and beginning to snooze.

Zim examined the electromagnetic waves on his device, reading the information on their wavelengths and peak heights, a frown tugging at his lip. This spectrum wasn’t in his databases. Whoever created it must be from beyond Irk’s reach. So… Past Earth, then. Into space they have not yet traveled. That was worrisome, it meant he would have no way of researching who they were.

Then again, he told himself, maybe it was just some rogue group of aliens. That could be it too. Operating with unusual, cobbled together equipment. Nothing to be concerned about. But he was still curious. He’s been working here for five of Earth’s orbits around the Sun and there was no way he was letting someone else interfere with his mission.

He quickly sent out a message toward the source of the radiation.  _ Back off, this planet is mine! -Irken Invader Zim. _

Satisfied, he turned the scanner off. No one would dare interfere with an Invader. Not if they didn’t want to incur the wrath of the entire armada.

“Alright, that should scare them off, whoever they are,” Zim said. “Come on, GIR, let’s go-”

A blast of air from above knocked him flat on his back. He let out a yelp as he landed painfully on his PAK, and he looked up in shock as a ship descended toward the hill. It was shoddy, barely held together, with exposed wiring, shaking as it sank down. But despite its trashy appearance, it moved fast. When it was just a few feet up, a door opened and an alien hopped out. It stood easily six feet tall and had a thick build like an Earth football player, with skin like a rock. Its stony eyes glared at Zim, and then it grabbed GIR in a beefy hand and jumped back into the ship.

“H-hey!” Zim yelled, scrambling up. “That’s mine!”

“Not anymore, irken scum,” it grumbled. Zim finally realized it was a member of the rock person race. Their planet was conquered ages ago, why was this one all the way out here?

“You’re a rock person!” Zim shouted, pointing at it. “How did you get off your homeworld?”

“As if I would tell you. And I’m not a ‘rock person’, I am of the mighty race of Gnarlbushers, and you would do good to remember our name when we destroy your people and liberate our world!” The alien shook GIR, who seemed only mildly concerned by the proceedings. “And we’ll use the information on this SIR unit to find your weaknesses. Goodbye, Invader.” It disappeared into the ship, which turned tail and fled.

Zim growled and launched himself after it using his PAK legs. When he hit it, he managed to grab onto a piece of metal that was peeled back, and rummaged in his PAK. Finding what he was looking for, he slammed a tracker deep into the hull. He felt victorious for a few seconds, until the ship suddenly spun and dislodged him.

He screamed as he fell, PAK legs deploying to hit the ground first, but the impact still jolted up his spine and made him wince. He lowered himself down and landed on his feet, rubbing his back as he stared at the ship, which had disappeared into the atmosphere.

“GIR,” he whispered fearfully. Then he got a hold of himself and growled, “Gah, those, those blasted thieves, stealing irken tech! From me, the mighty Zim? They’re going to regret that, ohh they’re going to pay.” He made sure his disguise was intact, then sprinted back to his base. First he checked the vector of the tracker. It wasn’t heading toward any space he was familiar with. Scowling, he pulled up another monitor and called his Tallest.

They seemed very disinterested when they answered, and he gave a curt salute before saying, “My Tallest, I apologize for contacting you on such short notice, but I must report an emergency.”

“Are you out of fun dip again?” Red asked, resting his head on his hand.

“What? No, my fun dip reserves are quite high. Anyway! I was sitting in my base plotting earlier, when I said to GIR, I told him… This next plan is going to be great! The humans would never expect their own vacuum cleaners to turn on them! And he totally agreed with me, and we were working on it, trying to get the suction juuust right, when the base detected a weird signal, and it reported that it was infrared, but not the same as what the Sun emits, which was pretty weird, am I right? So I decided to go investigate it, and-”

“Get to the point,” Purple ordered.

“Aliens took GIR!” Zim shouted.

They stared at him, sitting up.

“GIR… Your SIR unit?” Red asked.

“Yes! This ship came down and one of those rock people guys, you know that Flobee conquered ages ago, jumped out and grabbed GIR and stole him! He’s… He’s been botnapped!” Zim typed a command into his keyboard, sending them the readout from his tracker. “This is where they’re heading, see?”

The Tallest examined it. Then Red said, “I don't particularly care about GIR, but... if anything this could be a serious security breach.”

“Oh please, like anyone could break through SIR unit encryption,” Purple replied.

Red started to agree, then frowned. “Oh. Ah… Remember how we got GIR from the… _special_ bin?”

“Uh…” Purple thought about it.

“That’s right, I remember it like it was yesterday,” Zim said proudly. “You guys giving me a top-secret model of SIR unit! It was so generous, though no offense, but I think something went defective. Lots of things, actually.”

“Uh… Right. Right, I’m so sorry, we meant to tell you,” Red said, gesturing vaguely. “That model er… Was discontinued shortly after you left, due to its tendency to misbehave. But you always seemed to handle it well, so we let you keep it.”

Zim shrugged. “Fair enough, but anyway, what are we going to do?”

“That’s what I was getting at. GIR’s components have another flaw. His encryption software is outdated and no doubt our enemies know how to decrypt it.”

“That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t, because every single SIR unit is programmed with top secret information about our military capabilities. They have to know it to best assist their Invaders. And now one is in non-irken hands.” Red crossed his arms, giving Zim a reproachful look.

“Sirs, I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“You just can’t do anything right, can you?” Purple said. Zim grimaced, looking away. Purple sighed and said to Red, “So what do we do? How much is on that old SIR?”

“A lot, to a skilled enough hacker.” Red consulted the information Zim had sent. “They seem to be taking him into deep space, far beyond anywhere our ships have gone. Zim, we can’t assist you here, our resources are all going to the new bases we’re setting up on the newly invaded planets. So I’m leaving it up to you. Go get your SIR unit back from those thieves, and if you have to, kill them all. We can’t let our military secrets get out.”

Zim nodded and saluted. “Yes sir, I’ll have him back before you know it!”

The screen went dark, and he hurried to gather supplies. It was going to be a long trip, he could tell that the ship had made a hyperspace jump, but no matter, his ship could at least manage one of those, it didn’t really matter how long the return trip was. As long as he got GIR back.

“Computer, do a perimeter scan before I leave,” he called, examining a gun and deciding to bring it. It was shoved into a bag, and he began collecting other items that could potentially come in handy.

After a brief hum, Computer reported, “That Dib kid is lurking around as usual. He’s in your backyard.”

Zim groaned and pulled the bag onto his shoulders. “Alright. Warm up my ship’s engines, I’ll be right back.”


	2. Rescue Mission

“What are you doing in my yard, you piece of Earth filth?!” Zim screamed.

Dib didn’t even jump. “Nice to see you too,” he said, casually smiling.

Zim hated how he wasn’t intimidated by him anymore. “Answer the question.”

“Well, I saw you and GIR go into town earlier, I was just wondering what you were up to. Figured I’d sneak in and take a look around.” Dib was creeping toward the old rug that Zim had concealed a secret entrance under. Apparently it wasn’t such a secret.

Zim scowled and hopped to stand on top of it. “Well you aren’t doing that. Go home, I’m sure it’s past your bedtime.”

Dib started chuckling. “I haven’t had one of those since I was like… Fifteen. Not that I listened anyway. Dad wasn’t exactly around to enforce it.” Dib’s gaze went to the straps of Zim’s bag. “You going somewhere?”

“Yeah, the planet of Nunya.”

“What-”

“Nunya business! Now get off my property before I call the gnomes over here, don’t think I won’t!”

Dib regarded him for a few moments, then said, “Okay, what’s wrong?”

“What?”

“I’ve known you for a long time and I can tell when you’re stressed. I mean, you came out here without your disguise for one, you almost never do that.”

Zim touched his head, then yelped and scrambled back to hide in the shadows, shooting paranoid looks at the houses on either side of the yard. “Just get out!”

Dib just shook his head and walked over to him. “Seriously.” He leaned down a bit, putting his face on Zim’s level. Though he’s gotten much taller since Zim’s arrival, at five feet eight, Zim was barely breaking four feet. He knew the irken was self-conscious about it, and was more relaxed when Dib didn’t tower over him. “What’s wrong?”

Zim looked away, but admitted, “I detected a weird signal and went to investigate it, taking GIR with me, and… And it was an alien ship. I don’t know who all was in it, but a rock person, er… Well, they call themselves Gnarlbushers, but anyway, it stole GIR! Just flew off with him. I gotta go get him back. So if you don’t mind, I need to get going.”

“GIR was kidnapped? I’m sorry, I hope he’s okay.”

Zim snorted. “He’s a robot. It’s not like I really care what happens to him, but he has important irken secrets on his hard drive and I can’t let them decrypt them. They want to fight back against the Empire, and that’s unacceptable. Not like they could win of course, but that would still be an annoying waste of our time to quell yet another rebellion, ya know? So I’m gonna go get him back.”

Making a split second decision, Dib asked, “Can I come?”

Zim jerked. “Why would I bring you?”

Dib shrugged. “I don’t know, I could help. And I really like visiting space.” Not to mention, it beat going to school.

Zim squinted at him. “I’d really rather you didn’t…”

“If you let me come, you won’t have to worry about me getting into your base while you’re gone,” Dib said, smirking.

Zim’s antenna flicked, eyes widening, then he growled. “Ugh, _fine_. Fine, you can come, but you will stay out of my way. And if I give you a gun, you will shoot whoever I tell you to, no questions.”

“Oh, man, that’s…”

Zim glared at him. “We’re rescuing GIR and if things turn violent, we have to defend ourselves. So are you in or out?”

Dib hesitated, then said, “Okay. I’m in.”

“Good. We mustn't waste any time. Let’s go.”

“What, now? I don’t have any stuff, clothes or-”

“With each minute you spend blabbing about nonsense, GIR gets another million miles away!” Zim shouted.

Dib lifted his hands. “Yeesh, okay, just… Swing by my house, let me grab some stuff, and we can go, okay?”

Zim grumbled and led the way inside. “Okay. I don’t know why I’m agreeing to this, but the extra hands will be useful I suppose. Besides, worse comes to worst, I can use you as leverage.”

“What?” Dib asked.

“What?” Zim got on an elevator. “Hurry up.”

Dib stood next to him, and it rose. It dropped them off in the hangar, and Zim and Dib climbed into the cruiser. Zim barely waited for Dib to get situated in the small amount of room before he was seizing the controls and tearing out of the building.

Dib fell back, hitting his elbow against the wall. “Ow, damn! Careful!”

Zim twisted the wheel and the ship curved sharply, throwing Dib against the other side. “And that’s why you always wear a seatbelt,” Zim quipped.

Dib rubbed his head and snapped, “There’s only one seat, yours!”

“And? Go on, we’re at your house.”

Dib got up, seeing that Zim had brought the cruiser around to hover next to his window. He opened the hatch and leaned over to open his window, then slipped in.

Zim tapped his foot as he waited. The cruiser seemed quiet. He checked its stats. No, everything was fine. Hm. Then he realized what was missing. GIR’s singing. He was annoyed by it, sure, but it had become a familiar part of his life. And now with it gone, he felt uneasy.

He decided to stop thinking about it, instead leaning out of the cruiser to yell at Dib. “Hurry up, you’re slower than a Slorbeast! Come on, stop playing fashionista and just shove random clothes into the bag, we don’t have time for this!”

The bag flew out of the window and hit him in the face, Dib vaulting after it. “You were saying?”

Zim smacked the bag onto the floor and turned forward. “Did you also get hygiene products? I don’t want to smell your stink the whole way there.”

“Yes,” Dib said patiently. “I packed deodorant and toothpaste and everything.”

“Good. Did you say your goodbyes?”

Dib shrugged. “Kinda. Gaz was asleep and she was pretty mad when I woke her up, so when I tried to tell her I was taking a trip, she just yelled at me to go already and stop bothering her. So yeah. Hopefully she tells Dad where I'm going but I doubt he'll even notice I'm gone.”

“Okay then. Let’s go!” Zim pulled the hatch shut and connected with his home computer, pulling up the current location of his tracker. It wasn’t moving. “Hey, looks like they’ve stopped! Probably to refuel or stock up on supplies! We can totally get the jump on them and get GIR back!”

“Sounds good to me.” Dib shuffled over to lean against the seat next to Zim. “I wish you had more room in here.”

“Hmph, if you weren’t so stupidly tall you wouldn’t have that problem.”

“I thought irkens were supposed to respect tall people?”

Zim scoffed as he typed coordinates into the ship’s computer. “I respect tall irkens. Not tall gross aliens with, eh… _hair_.” He tapped a button, and then lifted the ship off. “Honestly the direction we’re going is in the complete opposite of Irk. And that’s really far from here. We’re going into completely uncharted territory and there could be anyone waiting for us. Things I won’t even know how to fight back against. You ready?”

Dib nervously laughed. “Yeah sure I guess.”

“Let’s go!” Zim gunned the engine and they launched straight up through the atmosphere. Zim was utterly calm, but Dib screamed with fear and excitement nearly the whole way. Once they broke free of gravity and the ship began generating its own, Dib fell back with a giddy laugh.

“Wow!” he exclaimed. That never failed to hype him up. He hasn't gone on a trip like this in a while. He still had the Spittle runner that Tak had left behind, but it needed repairs that he just wasn't quite sure how to do. Maybe he could talk Zim into helping him fix it later.

“Nice ride, isn’t it?” Zim stroked the console. “Been with me a long time, this Voot cruiser has. Sure they have newer, fancier models, but… My Voot’s never failed me. Now hold on. Once we get past Mars, I’m activating hyperdrive.”

Dib plastered himself to the window to watch as they passed the Moon. He couldn’t see Mars, though. “Hey, so where is Mars?”

“Eh? Oh, back that way.” Zim pointed over his shoulder. “I meant more like, past its orbit. We won’t be passing the actual planet. They aren’t all in a straight line you know.”

“Right. Of course.” Dib stretched out the best he could, grunting when his head hit the ceiling. “I think you should upgrade to a bigger cruiser though.” When Zim started to argue, he said, “I mean, you may just get even taller! And a tall irken deserves a bigger ship, huh?”

Zim straightened up proudly. “Well I suppose you’re right about that. But I can’t just get rid of this thing. It has sentimental value.”

Dib smiled. “So you do get sentimental over things. Thought so.”

“Shut up.” Zim reached over to a lever. “Get ready. I’ll be making the jump soon. It might be rough, but we’ll make it.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Eh.” Zim shrugged. “Our atoms get scattered across countless light years, so fast we wouldn’t even feel the pain, which honestly is the best way to go.”

“Wait, what-”

“And away we go!” Zim pulled the lever. Instantly their surroundings blurred, fantastic colors filling their view, and Dib’s stomach lurched. The ship compensated for the speed, but he was still jolted uncomfortably, almost able to feel himself getting stretched out. They were traveling unbelievably fast.

After several seconds, Zim seemed concerned. “We should be back in normal space by now, why are we still in hyperspace?”

“I-I don't know but I think I'm going to be sick,” Dib groaned.

Zim scowled at him and leaned forward to stare at the console. His eyes widened slightly. “Ohh, that might explain it.”

Then the ship finally exited into regular space, and Dib jerked forward, covering his mouth as his stomach heaved.

“You better not throw up!” Zim shouted.

Dib shakily moved to sit on the seat next to him. “Do you uh… have a bathroom in here?”

“We have no need for bathrooms. We process 100% of what we eat. Or very nearly. The rest can escape in gaseous form.”

“Ugh, too much info. But great. You don’t have a toilet. That’s going to be a problem.”

Zim shushed him and examined his computer screen. “That wasn’t an easy leap, we actually crossed into a different galaxy. But the Voot’s okay. Now let’s get GIR. The tracker should be just ahead.”

As the cruiser flew though, they didn’t see anything but rock debris. They were in a solar system orbiting a huge, simmering red giant. They passed shattered rocks that were likely once planets, but had been destroyed by the sun once it grew. Who knows how many more had been swallowed by it. There were small artificial planetoids around though, and Zim’s sensors reported back on places selling food, weapons, hardware, fuel, all sorts of things. And there was plenty of ship traffic. But Zim didn’t recognize most of the designs. Their insignias were unfamiliar. And when he opened channels to listen to various pilot chatter, he barely recognized any of their languages. He left it on though, allowing his PAK to begin translating.

But finally they reached the green zone, which had a single large planet that looked to be the hub of activity.

Zim stared at his screen. “It should be right here. Where is it?”

Dib leaned forward, then pointed. “Is that it?”

Zim guided the ship forward, and started when he saw a tiny piece of familiar tech. “Dib, hold your breath.”

Dib gave him a suspicious look, but did so. Zim carelessly opened the hatch and leaned out, and Dib grabbed the chair tightly to avoid being sucked out. Cold surrounded him and he shivered. Zim used his PAK legs to lift himself out of the ship, grabbing the device and returning. The hatch closed and the temperature rose back to normal, Dib breathing out with a gasp.

“Why the hell would you just lean out into space-” he started, but Zim interrupted him.

“This is my tracker,” he said. He watched the tiny light on it blink red. “They must have found it and dropped it off here.”

Dib looked at it. “Well dang. Now what?”

Zim set it down. “It’s okay. I can track GIR himself, I set up a special program on him, I just have to…”

Something slammed into the side of the ship. Zim whipped around to see what it was, and saw a small cruiser not much bigger than his, though it was wider. A couple of aliens sneered at him through the viewport.

Zim glared and edged his ship closer, throwing open a channel as he tried to contact them. It took a few tries but finally their faces appeared on screen, and he yelled at them in irken.

It was clear from the looks on their faces that they didn’t understand a word of it. One just looked at the other, shrugged, and then said something.

“I can’t understand them,” Zim complained. “We’re so far out we’re encountering languages that even my PAK isn’t programmed with. I’m gonna have to listen to their language more or download it somehow…”

“We’ve got bigger problems,” Dib said, patting at Zim’s arm. Zim looked up to see that they were surrounded by ships like the one in front of him, all sporting messy red logos, strange accessories that appeared to be entirely for aesthetics covering them. As Zim stared in through their various windows, taking in their tattered and revealing clothing, he realized what this was.

“A gang!” He grabbed the controls and spun aside, firing a laser at one of the ships. He blew it out of the way and raced through the opening, but the others were faster than he expected, chasing him down and surrounding him again, closer now, one even ramming against him and causing both of them to get thrown against the wall.

“Ugh…” Dib had hit face first, and he gingerly felt his nose.

Zim returned to yelling at the aliens, and they yelled back, and Zim switched to using their language once his PAK translated it.

Dib watched the surrounding ships with discomfort. They were outmatched here. There were so many and they all had weapons. He touched Zim’s shoulder. “I don’t think we can fight all of them.”

Zim pulled away. “Of course we can! Watch!” He started for the controls, but before he could even get there, he was attacked from several directions by the other ships. They slammed into the cruiser, denting the hull, and when one actually chipped the window, Dib and Zim both jumped.

The battering continued, despite all of Zim’s efforts to guide the ship away, and he was forced down onto an asteroid that boasted a few seedy shops and what seemed to be a motel.

When their ship crashed down, Dib grabbed his backpack and pulled it on, also grabbing Zim’s. The aliens got out of their ships, pointing guns at them and making demands in an unrecognizable, hissing language.

“Let’s just give them what they want,” Dib said quietly, raising his hands.

“What they want is my ship,” Zim growled. “They aren’t getting it.”

“Zim, please, be rational. They’re going to kill us.”

Zim’s antennae flattened. He looked at the display, cracked and flickering. He touched the console, felt the stressed humming. “It’s mine,” he said, voice shaking.

“I know. But is it worth your life?” Dib offered him his backpack.

Zim stared for a long moment, then sighed heavily and pulled it on. He briefly hooked his PAK up to the ship, downloading the program he needed to track GIR. Then he turned and opened the hatch. Keeping his hands visible, he climbed out, Dib right behind him. They edged away, and some of the gang members hurried over to check out the ship.

“Take it,” Zim spat. “Take it and get out of my sight.”

The cruiser was hauled off, the other aliens giving him threatening looks, but they didn’t touch either of them, just disappearing back into space.

Zim watched them go, arms crossed but claws tense against his sleeves. That cruiser has served him so well in the past years, and now it was gone. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get it back, but he was comforted by the fact that those aliens had never met an irken and thus would have no idea how to read any information stored on the ship. They were likely going to scrap it and erase all the data.

Zim finally looked at Dib, whose face looked red. “Dib, you can breathe here.”

Dib immediately inhaled and started coughing. “You couldn’t have told me that sooner?”

“I assumed you would figure it out, any settlement on an asteroid would have an atmosphere generator. Now as for how long you can breathe this mixture, who can say, but still.”

“How uh… Much oxygen is in this air?”

Zim considered, then said, “Approximately 25% of it.”

“Oh, boy.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Well generally humans should breathe between 19.5 and 23.5%. Earth usually has an average of 21.5. But it’s fine. I should be okay.”

Zim continued analyzing the air. “And nearly 75% nitrogen, with trace amounts of methane, carbon dioxide… Hmm, some argon. Overall, not too different from Earth. Ah, the extra oxygen is refreshing though. Alright, this is a minor setback, but we can figure this out.”

“Your cruiser just got stolen,” Dib said. “What can we possibly do?”

Zim smiled. “We’re on a backwater asteroid in an old solar system. Which means at least one of these shops is a pawnshop. And they usually sell ships. We’ll buy a new one.”

“With what? I doubt they accept dollars or uh… Irken monies out here.”

Zim paused, then groaned. “Of course. Well… We’ll barter.” He scoped out the area. There were other aliens walking around, looking at them curiously, but saying nothing. Most were just focused on getting what they needed and leaving.

Finally Zim settled on a shop and led the way over. “Just you wait, we’ll be in and out and back on our mission before you know it.”


	3. Before You Know It

Zim let out an audible sigh of relief when they entered the pawn shop. “Oh good, the cashier is a Vortian. I have no clue how one got out this far, but that’s none of my business. I can talk to him.” He walked forward, addressing the other in irken.

Dib just waited patiently, examining nearby shelves.

“So, I need a ship,” Zim said.

The Vortian squinted, slowly closing the magazine he was reading and sitting forward. “This area is far outside irken jurisdiction.”

“Yeah, I realized that. But look, I’m not here to like capture you or any nonsense, I just want to buy a ship. Got any?”

“I have a few. What are you looking for?”

Zim considered. “Hm, doesn’t need to be too big, just for uh… Two people. Hopefully with bathroom facilities because my passenger unfortunately needs them, and obviously hyperspace capability, maybe some good weapons and a strong shield system… Got anything like that?”

The Vortian tapped his fingers on the counter. “Yeahh, I have an old Era 3 Gemulon luxury ship.”

Zim raised his antennae quizzically. “Eh? Era 3? Gemulon?”

“Yeah. They’re out here in the Andromeda galaxy, which irkens have never visited. At least, not to do any invading. You've only ever gone as far as the Milky Way. Which is why I’m surprised you’re here.”

“So we're in the Andromeda galaxy?”

The Vortian sighed. “You didn’t pay any attention before making the jump out here, did you?”

“Eh, not really.”

“Of course. Well, I saw your old ship get jacked, disappointing. Surprised it handled the trip, Voots are extremely outdated. Anyway, the Era 3 ship was very popular… About five hundred Gemulon years ago. Now they’re considered obsolete and unwanted except maybe as a collector’s item. But hey, its specs still easily outclass a Voot cruiser.”

Zim grumbled, then said, “Okay, let me have a look at it. I’m Zim, by the way, and that’s Dib.” He gestured to Dib, who waved.

“What’s he?”

“A human.”

“Never heard of them. I’m Gard Puk. Follow me to the ship lot.” He picked up a key ring and Zim went behind the counter, following him to the door. Dib hurried over too, walking out behind them.

“Greetings, Dib,” Gard said.

Dib just gave him a confused look.

Zim said, “He doesn’t understand Vortian. Or irken. Or any language other than English, which is from his home planet.”

“Oh. That’s too bad. You should teach him irken at least, it’s not too difficult.”

“Compared to English, yeah it is. But maybe I’ll teach him anyway.”

The lot behind the pawn shop had several ships sitting in it, of varying sizes, colors, and styles. Dib crouched down to examine a vessel no bigger than one of those toy jeeps that kids ride around in. “Wow, who uses these?”

Zim relayed the question to Gard, who said, “They’re used by Whiips. They’re these tiny little fairy guys. That’s one of their warships.”

“Neat,” Zim said, and told Dib what the ship was for.

“Alright, here she is,” Gard announced, stopping in front of a ship with a gleaming purple hull and wide, shimmering viewports. It had swept back wings with four engines, and what appeared to be plasma cannons nestled under each wing.

Zim let out a whistle. “She’s a beauty.” He went around to look at the engines, lifting himself on his PAK legs to look inside. “Hm, this is fascinating technology. Unlike anything I’ve seen. But it flies?”

“It flies, it leaps through hyperspace, it’s even equipped to go underwater. Wanna take a look at the weapons?”

“Sure!” Zim went into the ship with him.

Dib waited outside, watching the sky, leaning on the Whiip ship. Despite the robbery, he was enjoying the trip. It was amazing being off Earth. He wasn’t even still in the Milky Way. He was in a galaxy beyond it. So unbelievably far from home, and he was here, safe and alive. He didn’t even mind that he was stuck with Zim. Really, he hasn’t much minded Zim’s presence in over a year. They were used to each other and have helped each other far more than hindered each other. Zim hasn’t done anything particularly threatening in a long time and Dib has stopped considering him a threat. He had better things to worry about. Really, he thought of Zim as a friend. The irken respected him and took him seriously, which was more than could be said of most of the people he knew.

Maybe this trip would allow them to talk more. Dib wanted to get to know him outside of their enemy relationship. Though he’s learned a lot about Zim, there was still much more to learn.

It was a while before Zim finally walked down from the ship. “I love it!” he said to Gard. “How much do you want for it?”

“Well, irken monies are useless out here,” Gard said. “And I doubt you have any currency we do use. So how about a trade?”

“Oh, absolutely. What do you want?” Zim took his backpack off.

“Let’s see what you have.”

They went back into the store, and Dib leaned on the counter and watched as Zim emptied out his bag and began sorting through items. “Let’s see, I have this handheld disintegrator, ideal for eliminating even the most stubborn enemies, there’s this processor cleanup disc, does wonders for speeding up your computer of choice, um… Ooh, this is quite a bargain.” Zim held up a small chip. “Wanna hack into top secret government networks? This baby will do it for you.”

“That’s all great Zim, but what about this?” Gard picked out a crystal.

Zim stared, then said, “Ah, that uh… That isn’t for sale. I need that.”

“Really? You really need a Vortian gemstone?” Gard examined it. “An intense shade of red, flawless surface… A hackenite, from what I can see. What ever could you use this for?”

Zim sighed. “It was going to be the focuser for a new weapon I’m designing. Getting those is very difficult.”

“I’m aware.” Gard set it on the counter. “I’ll take it.”

“What? But…”

“One crystal, an entire ship. Sounds like a fair deal, does it not?”

Zim needed that crystal, it was a better focuser than anything else he’s tried. But… He supposed he had other options. He begrudgingly agreed. “Alright. You can take the hackenite. And also… Could you hook me up with any language software for the local languages? I need to be able to communicate.”

“Yeah, for this area, what you want to know is how to speak Slirfese. It isn’t too different from irken. Give me that gun and I’ll thrown in a how to speak disc that should be compatible with your ship and your PAK.”

Zim agreed and handed over the gun, putting the rest of his stuff away. Gard handed him an instruction guide to running the ship, as well as its current passcodes, though said they could be changed. He also gave him the disc.

“Come on Dib, let’s get going!” Zim said cheerfully.

“You’re not leaving, are you?” Gard asked.

“Well yeah, I planned to.”

“Ship needs lubricant.”

“What?”

“Yeah. It’s been sitting for awhile. Now it does use solar power as its energy source but it requires a particular sort of lubricant for the moving parts in the engines. It all thickened up and had to be pumped out.”

“Oh, well…” Zim gave him a hopeful look. “Do you have that lubricant?”

“No, but the mechanic down the road can hook you up.”

“Great-”

“Tomorrow.”

“What!” Zim snapped.

Gard spread his arms. “Sorry man, he’s only in three days a week. He has a main store down on the planet we’re orbiting, and then comes here to sell off some extras. You won’t be able to get down there without a ship, so you gotta stay the night.”

“Oh this just keeps getting more fun,” Zim commented. “Okay. We’ll stay the night. How’s that motel nearby?”

“Eh…”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. Okay, I’ll be back for my ship tomorrow.” Zim headed out. “Come on, Dib.”

“What’s going on?” Dib asked.

Zim explained the situation to him.

“Oh, wonderful.” Dib rubbed his eyes. “Whatever. We’ll stay a night, and tomorrow we can go rescue GIR. It’ll be fine.”

“Who knows how far away they’ll get by then,” Zim said. “They may just reach their destination, and start hacking into him… He’s probably so scared…”

Dib rested his hand on Zim’s shoulder. “This is GIR we’re talking about. He’s probably singing a driving song and telling them about tacos. He’s okay.”

“I hope so.”

“You really care about him, huh?”

“Of course I…” Realizing what he was saying, Zim hastily said, “I mean, I care that valuable military information has been compromised. I care about losing a valuable resource that was personally given to me by the Tallest. That’s all.”

Dib just smiled and shook his head. “Whatever you say.”

They went into the motel’s office, and Zim approached the alien behind the counter, who looked a lot like the ones who had stolen his cruiser. He cleared his throat and attempted to speak their language.

They watched him with a bored expression, responding shortly. Zim sighed and dug out the language disc he had gotten, extending a drive out of his PAK and placing it inside. He waited, scanning all the information he needed off it, and once he knew how to speak Slirfese, he was able to properly ask for a room.

The other shrugged and tossed a card key at him, then looked back at their computer, leaning back in their seat.

“Do I uh, do I pay?” Zim asked, confused.

“You pay in the morning,” they replied.

“Oh. Alright, that makes sense. Yeah.” Zim looked at the number on the key. Then he led the way.

They passed several rooms, and finally Zim found theirs and unlocked it. Dib wrinkled his nose when they walked in. Apparently mildew smell was universal. He looked at the small room with its two beds, the covers worn and with boring patterns of brown and tan, a desk and dresser shoved against the wall. Though there was a TV, which was cool.

“Not the best quarters but I’ll take it,” Zim said. He went to the furthest bed, in front of the desk, and dropped his stuff next to it. He stretched out and groaned. “I hope nothing else goes wrong.”

Dib sat on the other bed, and it made a pathetic creaking noise. “Me too. But hey, at least we’re alive.”

“Hmph. Guess so.” Zim sat at the desk and rested his chin in his palms, staring into space.

“You okay?” Dib asked.

Zim blinked, then said, “I’m fine, I’m downloading the Slirfese language into my PAK so I can speak it fluently. Be quiet so I can concentrate.”

Dib was quiet for a while, laying on his back and reflecting on the trip. Then he turned on the TV. Zim gave him a look but didn’t say anything.

Dib knew there was really no point to watching TV, he couldn’t understand them, but it was noise and it gave him something to look at. He watched some animated movie that he assumed was for children while waiting for Zim to finish. Though he couldn't understand the words, he could follow the simplistic plotline well enough.

Finally Zim sat up, taking the CD out of his PAK and putting it aside. “Okay, now I know Slirfese.”

“Good job,” Dib said sincerely.

Clearly taking it as sarcastic, Zim rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Now I’m gonna try to key in on GIR.” He took out his laptop and opened it, opening up a program. Dib went to lay on the other bed, watching curiously.

The screen showed an image that Dib immediately recognized as a star chart. Zim muttered to himself as he zoomed out. “This only has a cursory chart of the Andromeda galaxy. I never needed more, didn't think I'd come out here. I’ll need to update it and bump GIR’s location against a map of this galaxy. Maybe Gard could assist me. But it looks like he’s not moving too fast now. They probably thought they got the drop on me.”

“Boy, they’re gonna be surprised when we show up and take him back, huh?” Dib asked.

Zim laughed. “They sure are! And I’m gonna give ‘em one of these!” He punched the air. “And then one of these!” He clawed violently at the air. “Haha, and then, while they’re down and begging for mercy, I’ll kick them!”

Dib chuckled, glad to see Zim behaving more like himself. “That’s right. See, everything’s going to be fine.” He moved back to his bed and laid down, stretching out. It was kinda lumpy, the blanket made of a strange material, but it was comfortable enough he supposed.

Zim stayed at the desk, watching his laptop. He did wave at the wall though, activating a motion sensor and causing the lights to dim.

“Goodnight,” Dib said.

“Mhm.”

Dib lifted his head, seeing Zim staring intently at his screen. “Are you going to sleep at any point?” he called, concerned.

“I don’t need to sleep.”

Dib knew that Zim was fully capable of sleeping, but he didn’t say anything, just shrugging and resting his head back down. If Zim wanted to stare at a monitor all night, that was his business. Dib spent a while with his eyes closed but wide awake, thinking over the trip so far. It's been hectic but he was almost glad for a chance to relax. And once they rescued GIR, he was considering asking Zim to take a slower route back. He really wanted to sightsee.

Finally exhaustion overcame him, and he took his glasses off and set them on the bedside table, drifting off to sleep.


	4. What's Worth More?

When Dib woke up, the room was still dark. Then again, maybe this asteroid didn’t face the Sun at any point. He checked his watch. Though the time didn’t matter here, it at least told him that he was asleep for six hours.

He glanced at the desk. To his surprise, Zim was still sitting there. But he was slumped forward, head down.

Dib quietly got up, put on his glasses, and went over to look at him. His eyes were closed, one arm wrapped around his laptop, which was still open to the tracking program. The little moving dot had a picture of GIR’s face over it.

Dib knew Zim missed him. This wasn’t about military secrets or anything. Zim genuinely liked his SIR unit and was sad without him. But Dib had a feeling he thought it was weak to admit to his attachment.

Maybe he could convince him it was okay to be honest. But for now, he pulled the comforter off the other bed and took it to him, gently draping it around his shoulders. Zim didn’t react, confirming that he had fallen asleep.

Dib wasn’t really tired now, so he went to sit in the armchair and read a book he had brought. Zim shifted a few times, laying down more fully across the table, but otherwise was still. Dib couldn’t help but wonder how many other times he’s just passed out at a table while working. It really couldn’t be good for his posture.

It did eventually get lighter out, but not much. Zim raised his head, rubbing at his eyes. “Ugh… GIR, bring me- oh.” He blinked at the screen. “Right. Rescue mission.” He straightened, and curiously touched the blanket around his shoulders. “Where did…”

“I know you get cold easily so I gave you a blanket,” Dib said. “Sleep well?”

Zim grumbled and got up, tossing the blanket at the bed. “Well enough. Thanks for not stabbing me in the back.”

“That’d be a dumb move on my part, I don’t want to get stranded in the Andromeda galaxy.”

Zim cracked his back. “Okay, we should get going.”

“Alright, just let me take a shower,” Dib said.

Zim sighed. “Really?”

“I’ve never showered in an alien motel before!” Dib gathered stuff out of his backpack.

Zim shook his head. “I’ll never understand you humans, you get excited over the most mundane things.”

“At least we know how to have fun,” Dib replied, going into the bathroom.

Zim snorted and turned back to his computer. At least the hotel has Wi-Fi. Or the equivalent. He’s really been on Earth too long.

He browsed the Internet while waiting for Dib. If there was one thing he could rely on in space, it was that nearly every species inevitably ended up developing the same sorts of technology. Almost all advanced races had television. They had Internet. The used the same EMF to send messages. It made things really easy to figure out, if you’re smart of course.

He was able to download several language courses by the time Dib came back, though he was wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Dib, cover yourself!” Zim shouted, covering his eyes.

Dib rolled his eyes. “I have a towel on. Prude. I just gotta get my deodorant.”

Zim slowly looked back at him, gaze raking up and down his body. Then he nodded and looked forward. “Well I suppose you aren’t as hideous as most of the humans I’ve seen without their clothes. You actually have muscle definition, it’s nice.”

“Huh.” Dib paused with his hand in his backpack, giving Zim a bemused look. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I can appreciate someone who cares about fitness. If you were irken I bet you’d be very strong. A master Invader, no doubt. Too bad you’re just a measly little human and you’ll be wearing chains like the rest of your people quite soon.”

Dib retrieved the deodorant and straightened up, lifting his arms to apply it. “Yeah you said that like two years ago. When are you going to get a move on and actually conquer us?”

“I’m working on it! I have all kinds of plans!”

“Your plans suck.” Dib lowered the deodorant and Zim glared at him. “What? You never win. I always beat you, and even if I don’t, your plans just fall apart on their own. Remember when I got dragged on that family vacation and you were alone for a week? You had all the time in the world to conquer Earth. But nothing happened. I came back and you were happy to see me, and _then_ you tried one of your schemes. I feel like you’re doing it more for the validation than actually wanting to conquer Earth.”

“I do want to conquer Earth!” Zim insisted.

“Do you really? Or are you just doing it because you were told to?” Dib went back to the bathroom and dropped his towel, getting dressed.

As he expected, Zim followed him to keep arguing. “Both! I was told to do it, and I’m enjoying doing it! Being an Invader has been my dream since I was a smeet!”

“Really? I wonder if that’s because it was programmed into you. You were made to be a soldier. You didn’t get any choice. Doesn’t that seem unfair? To have your entire life chosen for you?”

Zim tilted his head. He had never really thought about that. “I mean… That’s just how things are. Whatever job must be filled, irkens are cloned and programmed to do that job. Very few of us get to actually choose what we want to do.”

“It’s slavery.” Dib began combing his hair.

Zim slapped his hand on the counter. “We’re not slaves! We can still do what we want, but it’s an honor to serve Irk! To do things in the name of our great empire, so we do so!”

“And that sounds like brainwashing. Again, they forced this loyalty onto you. They forced you into this job. I feel like you were never meant for this. They can stick a computer on your back, try to program you, but in the end…” Dib shook his head. “You’re still a person. You have a heart, and a brain. You have your own personality, your own skills and interests, your own goals. I wish you were free to follow them.”

Zim’s eyes were large as he realized the implications. “Being free to do something else? That’s… I mean, I always kinda did do what I wanted in a way, like I was designed to be a soldier but… But I won’t say I’ve done anything wrong, mind you, everything I do is great, but I feel like things just aren’t always great… In the way they’re supposed to be. So I blow up part of my own planet instead of another. So I cause massive blackouts, like… Twice. So I directly killed an Almighty Tallest, and indirectly killed the other. Whatever, they had replacements. I think any destruction is good, but… others don’t think so.” He looked at himself in the mirror. “And they reencoded me as a food drone. A powerful irken of my intellect, forced to serve food? Ridiculous! I can be so much better than that! I am better! And that’s why I decided to do something else! I did make my own choice, I demanded to be given a planet to invade, and the Tallest allowed me to take on the rank of Invader and sent me to Earth! It’s another chance to prove I’m important and I will not let you talk me out of it!”

Dib touched his shoulder. “Zim… I know how it is to feel like you have to prove yourself. But you don’t have to prove your worth to anyone but yourself. If you feel like you’re important, then you are. You don’t need anyone else’s validation.”

“Well…” Zim looked aside.

Dib kept going. “You're smart. You’re strong. You’re funny. You already are amazing, and you must think so too since you say it all the time. I’m sorry to say this, but your people are probably past the point of forgiving you for things you’ve done. Why are you trying to impress them? Screw them! Do what you want, do what makes you happy, and who cares what anyone else thinks?”

Zim stared at him. “I can’t just not complete my mission though! I… I have to at least give them Earth. Then my Tallest will realize I can do it. That I am a competent Invader.”

“And then what would you do?”

Zim hadn’t thought about it. “What would I do?” He didn’t know the answer to that. His future was entirely comprised of plots to conquer Earth. Beyond that, he didn’t have any plans. “Well, um… I’d get another planet. And conquer that one, and everyone will love me.”

“That’s a lot of effort to go through to get people to love you, when you can achieve the same goal by just being nice to people and making friends.” Dib walked out of the room, Zim trailing behind him. “Your people won’t love you for capturing Earth. They’ll love the idea of you. They’ll love what you represent and what the planet can do to benefit Irk. But they won’t know you, and deep down many will probably still resent you. That’s not love.”

Zim was quiet, and when Dib glanced at him, saw that his eyes were downcast, antennae limp. He sighed and got down on a knee, gently holding Zim’s shoulders.

“I know it’s probably hard to accept. But you need to decide what’s worth more. Your own happiness, or the satisfaction of those who don’t care about you.”

Zim sank onto a bed. “I’ve served the Tallest my whole life,” he said. “Not the same ones of course, but multiple. It’s what I’m used to. It's what all of us are used to. Going away from that, it’s… It’s nearly unheard of, the stuff of horror stories, feral irkens without a cause, rebelling and attacking their own people…”

“You can do it. You can leave your mission behind and just live on Earth. You and GIR, and me, and the kids at school… We’ll all just have normal lives. You can graduate and get an Earth job. You can do things you like. What do you have to lose?”

“An irken who deserts the military will be executed,” Zim recited.

Dib smiled. “What about a food drone?”

“Pft, the Empire doesn’t care about losing a food drone, there’s so many more where that came from…” Zim trailed off, then realized. “Ohh.”

“Yeah. You’re a food drone, regardless of the job you’re doing now. You can quit, and technically by their own rules, the Tallest can’t do anything. So what do you say?”

Zim hesitated, eyes darting around as he thought about it. His hands shook. “Deserting my mission. After all this time, could I really give up? My whole life was spent preparing to be an Invader, but… I haven’t made progress on Earth. Can I stop? _Should_ I?”

“Of course you should,” Dib urged. “You’ll be happier.”

“But my Tallest gave me Earth, they'll be upset if I don’t conquer it.”

“No they won’t. I’ve listened to some of their transmissions, they don’t actually want it. They sent you there to get rid of you.”

Zim looked like he just got shot. “What?!”

“I can show you when we get back, I recorded them all. For now, what will you do?”

Zim grumbled to himself, and turned to face the wall, expression hardening. “I can’t give up. I’ve come too far to do that. Now are you ready? We need to get going, you spent way too long talking. As usual.”

Dib sighed, standing and walking to the door. “Fine. Let’s go to that mechanic so we can get out of here.” He gathered his stuff back into his backpack. “And you can go back to your failing mission and I can go back to halfheartedly thwarting you.”

Zim bristled. “No one’s making you fight back against me! You can just stop too, you know!”

“I don’t even have to fight you! You’ll fail on your own if I leave you alone! That’s why I think you aren’t cut out for being an Invader! You just can’t do it, because I know you have something most other Invaders don’t!”

“And what’s that?” Zim demanded, fists clenching.

Dib got up in his face, and he took a startled step back. “Sympathy!”

Zim’s face paled. He swallowed, and stammered, “No I don’t, I don’t care about anyone but myself and the Almighty Tallest!”

“That’s a cute, safe answer for a soldier to give, but it isn’t honest. You care about things. You care about GIR. You care about MiniMoose, who… Wait, where is he?”

“Guarding the base, duh.”

“Well, anyway.” Dib cleared his throat, then got back into his spiel. “You care about your robots! You form attachments to things like your Voot cruiser and particularly quirky pieces of machinery! In the past couple years you’ve even started petting dogs and cats that pass you! You care so much for other things, even if you don’t want to admit it, and that prevents you from doing any serious harm! Listen, I know this is what you’ve dreamed of. But I just don’t think it can make you happy. Please, at least think about whether or not invading is something you truly enjoy. If not… You should try something else.”

Zim loudly shut the lid of his laptop and shoved it into his bag. “You’re mistaken in so many ways they aren’t even worth pointing out. Let’s go.” He walked out of the room.

Dib sighed as he followed him. “I really thought I was getting through to you,” he said quietly. He wasn’t sure if Zim heard, but the irken’s antennae did lay back slightly.

They went to the front desk, and Zim talked to the clerk, before finally working out a payment in the form of that hacking chip he had offered Gard.

“What kind of motel barters with its guests?” Dib wondered.

“The kind in the Andromeda, clearly,” Zim said. “Now to the mechanic before he tries it and realizes it’s a fake!” He took off running.

Dib shook his head and ran after him.

Luckily the mechanic wasn’t too difficult to find, the asteroid wasn’t that big. He was a member of the race that spoke Slirfese, which were apparently called Slirfs. He was huge, very unlike the scrawnier members of the species that had been part of the gang that stole the Voot, but he had the same reptilian appearance.

Zim spoke to him, explaining the situation as the mechanic rolled some sort of part over and over in his hands, polishing it. Though he mostly seemed to just want something to fiddle with. When Zim was done, he finally said, “Okay. Do you have payment?”

“Ah, well, I can barter,” Zim replied. “See, I’m very far away from home, none of my money’s good out here.”

“Unfortunate. Is the tall tan alien for sale?”

“What? No, that’s Dib, he’s with me.” Zim was doing his best to speak fluently, but apparently he chose the wrong way to phrase that, because the other started laughing.

“Ohh I see, I see, he is with you.”

Zim turned pink at the inflection on the word for ‘with’, and hastily corrected, “No, not like that, he’s just working with me! To rescue my robot.”

“No need to explain. You can keep him, but I cannot just give up my products for free. Work for me for an hour, you may have lubricant for Gemulon ship.”

Zim groaned.

“What’s wrong now?” Dib asked.

“He wants to trade labor for the lubricant we need.”

Dib pushed Zim forward. “Well you know all about fixing things.”

“I want to get off this rock!”

“Look, so do I, but what choice do we have?”

Zim took his backpack off and began going through it. “Look, uh… Ipmo, I think that was your name, how about a trade? I have a lot of stuff, I can give you any, see?” He started showing him things, but Ipmo shook his head.

“Material goods are useless. But work helps me. Work for me, and you may have what you need.”

Zim looked at Dib, who shrugged. “Hey, how bad can it be?”


	5. Not So Bad

“See, this isn’t so bad,” Dib said as he handed Zim a tool that was basically a powered bolt remover.

Zim grimaced as he took it and began unbolting the fusion chamber access panel off the ship that had been dropped off when the shop opened. Its owner said it had a nasty tendency to blow up whenever it flew for too long, so it needed to get fixed right away.

“That’s easy for you to say,” Zim said. “You know nothing about this so you were just assigned to hand me tools! I’m doing all the hard work!”

“Well hey, it’s educational. And I’m learning a lot of Slirfese.” Dib was listening to Ipmo talk to a customer.

“Hand me a dampener.”

“Hm? Oh, uh…” Dib picked up the heavy lead pad that sat nearby, and Zim used it to shield himself as he finished opening the chamber door. He didn’t want to be bombarded with residual radiation. Fusion reactors could remain radioactive for hours after use, but they didn’t have time to wait.

Cautiously, Zim pressed the dampener inside the chamber, waiting for a few moments so it could absorb the radiation. Then he put it down and began working on the machinery. “So different, yet effective,” he commented as he took it apart. “There really are some impressive ships out here.”

Dib stayed a safe distance back, but it seemed Zim knew his nuclear physics. He was soon backing out and closing the panel, and told Dib to test it. He turned the ship on. After a tense moment, it hummed to life.

“It worked!” Zim patted the hull.

“Impressive. You have a knack for mechanical work,” Dib said. “Of course, I knew that. You’re a brilliant scientist and engineer.”

Zim glanced at him. Was it just the lighting, or was he blushing? He looked away before Dib could get a proper look. “Thank you,” he said, softer than Dib expected.

Dib smiled, crossing his arms on a toolbox as he examined Zim. Having anticipated a quick trip, Zim had only brought one uniform. Deciding he didn’t want to get grease all over it, he had rolled up the sleeves and replaced his gloves with leather ones from the garage, and was wearing a stained frock that was too big for him. “You should wear your sleeves up more often, it looks good.”

“It’s so unprofessional,” Zim replied.

“Who’s trying to be professional? We’re in a garage on an asteroid, not a business meeting.” Dib cleaned off his face with a sigh, and when he lowered the rag, Zim was watching him. “What?”

“What?” Zim looked back at the ship, turning it off. He called over Ipmo and let him know it was ready to go.

“Good work, I will inspect it and then give it back to our customer,” Ipmo said, getting in the ship and guiding it to another part of the garage.

“We only have twenty more minutes,” Dib said. “Granted, they’re gonna last like… An hour in my time, but hey, what’re you gonna do?”

“We got ripped off,” Zim grumbled. “An hour in their time is like three of your hours.”

“Yeah we probably should have asked. Oh well, what’s next?”

Zim checked the log. “Someone got a, uh… Some sort of animal got sucked into their engine. And it needs to be cleaned out. Oh, ew…”

“Ew,” Dib agreed. He motioned to one of the other workers and the ship was dragged in. He took off his leather gloves, pulled on sterile latex ones, and put the leather back on. “Okay, let’s get this over with. Pop the hood.”

Zim was standing several feet back with a stick. “I… Really don’t want to.”

“Do it. I have less of a sense of smell than you do, so you open it from there and I’ll take the brunt of it, okay?”

“What a heroic sacrifice.” Zim used the stick to deactivate the lock, and the hood sprung open.

Dib was hit with a smell very much like a rancid skunk carcass that’s been baking on the side of the road for a while. It also seemed spicy. Weird. But as for what the animal may have looked like, he had no idea. It was reduced to a thick red paste all over the engine. “Oh boy. Okay, well there’s some good news. It doesn’t even look like a dead animal. It’s more like… Strawberry milkshake.”

“Well, still. Disgusting.” Zim walked closer.

“Stop complaining and grab a rag. We need to get this wiped up and then start ungumming the parts.”

“Is ungumming a word?”

“Is now.”

They spent a gross several minutes cleaning the guts off the engine. Then they had to take it apart and spray everything down and polish it, then reassemble it. It was kinda fun though, Dib learning about the parts and how they worked together, and likened it to a very difficult 3D puzzle.

When they were done, they had to go wash themselves off before the scent sank into their clothes. They returned to the ship once clean and gave it a final check, and then moved it along to Ipmo.

Despite the earlier argument, Zim opened up to Dib again, chatting with him as they worked. Dib avoided the previous discussion and instead just talked to him about ship propulsion technology, which Zim knew a lot about and was eager to discuss.

Finally, as they finished repairing a damaged fuel injector, Ipmo approached them and handed them a bottle, telling them that they were free to go.

“And for the unexpected quality of your work, here.” He gave Zim a small piece of paper.

After looking at it curiously for a few moments, Zim realized it was money. “Oh, thank you very much. Come on Dib, let’s get going.” Zim threw off the frock and straightened out his clothes, pulling his uniform gloves on.

As they headed out, Zim held out his arms, staring at them as if he’s never seen them before. “Do uh… Do you think I should leave my sleeves up?”

“Yeah,” Dib replied. “It’ll probably be more comfortable.”

“Alright.” Zim left them rolled.

They returned to the pawn shop. Zim briefly spoke to Gard about getting a star chart. He was able to pay for it with the money Ipmo gave him, and apparently still had plenty left over.

“Good luck,” Gard said as they headed to the ship lot. Zim emptied the bottle into the tank, and they climbed into the ship.

“Wow, this is nice,” Dib said, looking around. They were in the bridge, standing on a plush tan carpet that had the texture of moss. There were two chairs in front of the console that filled the front, and Zim sank into one, turning the ship on and watching as displays flickered to life. His fingers hovered over them.

“Incredible. All touch screen. I did some reading on Gemulon technology last night so I can certainly pilot this.”

“Hold on, I wanna look around first.” Dib went through the small door at the back. It opened into a passenger area that could seat four people, the carpet in here light blue. In the corner was another room containing a toilet and shower. Finally he checked out the counter toward the side, which had what seemed to be a refrigerator, stove, and microwave, along with cabinets. All empty, but still.

“It’s nice,” Dib said as he returned to the bridge. “Like a little RV.”

“Yes, that’s basically what it’s for. Long trips. Now sit down, we need to leave.” Zim had interfaced his laptop into the ship and brought up GIR’s location, which was sitting still. Quietly, he said, “I’m going to save you, GIR.”

Dib sank into the chair next to him, deciding not to ask. He didn’t want Zim to get defensive. He pulled on a seatbelt and waited.

“That seat is for the weapons,” Zim said as he placed his hand on the screen, over a red circle. “So if we get attacked, you know what to do.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“You’ll learn.” Zim spread his fingers out, and the circle expanded and turned green. They heard the engines speed up. Zim consulted the power level. “Solar panels deployed. It needs a few seconds to charge up. And…” The square he was watching turned green. “Perfect.” He slid his hand over to a collection of arrows, and guided the ship up. It responded easily, soaring directly up.

“It’s a smooth ride,” Dib commented.

“Yeah, I have to wonder… If this is considered obsolete, what are their ships like now?” Zim pointed the nose up and gunned the engines. They roared, launching them forward. They weren’t on a planet so there was no true atmosphere to break free of. They were through the artificial one in seconds, rocketing through the solar system. “Whoo, look at this thing fly!” He leaned forward to watch planets and celestial objects pass by. “And yet I barely feel the acceleration! This really is a luxury ship! Dib, try the weapons! It’s all pictures so just use your best judgment!”

Dib looked at the images on the screen, then focused on one that showed an expanding and shortening beam. He clicked it and it turned green, and part of the screen cleared to show him the space in front of the ship, but from a slightly different angle.

“Oh, this gives me a gun’s… I guess, a gun’s eye view,” Dib observed.

“For increased accuracy, no doubt,” Zim said. He slowed the ship down slightly.

Dib tapped a ring icon and rotated it. The view rotated too. “Okay, this is pretty straightforward. I can move the gun around with this, and even adjust the angle by rolling my finger… And the screen shows me a target. So I just line it up with something, like that rock over there, and…” Keeping his fingers on the ring to hold the view steady, he used his thumb to hit a circle right next to it. An intense white beam shot out and slammed into the rock, shattering it.

Zim and Dib both let out awed shouts.

“I love this ship!” Zim shouted.

“Me too!” Dib practiced with the guns, figuring out how to switch between them. “I like how it doesn’t really use words, just pictures. Makes it real easy to operate.”

“Yeah. There are certainly words, but you really only see them when checking on stats and entering in coordinates and stuff. Otherwise, they use images for easy navigation.” Zim opened a rectangle that looked like a keypad, with strange symbols in the place of letters and numbers. But Zim was able to understand it, typing in a command. “I’ll reprogram this thing to use irken eventually but I’m definitely not touching the display settings.”

“I don’t know, I’m not really feeling them,” Dib said, opening up a control panel. “Too much green. How about…” He moved his finger on a slider and the hues shifted into blues and purples, other than the images that were intentionally coded red or green. “This?”

“Ah!” Zim grinned. “That looks so much better! Thanks!” When Dib just smiled at him, he coughed and looked away. “I mean, it is aesthetically pleasing but really makes no difference to the function. Anyway, I’ve locked onto GIR and he’s too close to warrant a hyperspace jump, we’d distort far too much time. We can get there in a few hours at this speed.”

“Sounds good. So what can we do for a few hours?” Dib asked.

Zim considered. Then he activated the auto pilot and got up. “This is a luxury ship. Let’s go into the cabin and see if it has video games.”

The ship did have video games. They were in the Gemulon language. They had a different animation style than Dib has ever seen before, but they were just as varied as Earth games. They chose one that seemed similar to Halo, where no reading was really necessary and they could just pick out weapons and try to kill each other.

Zim was better at first, making use of his military training to repeatedly ambush and kill Dib. But then once Dib figured out the map, he got a strategy and was able to better stick to open areas and shoot back, and began winning some matches.

“This has gotta be my favorite gun,” Zim said, his character coming around the corner and pointing a gun with a thin barrel at Dib.

“Oh God, not that one…” Dib tried to hurry back, but Zim shot at him, and triangular blades fired out and slammed into his character. Sprays of blood filled his POV, and the camera switched to third person as he died, showing his character with cuts in their armor and blood pouring out.

Dib sighed as Zim laughed, battle stats showing up.

“That gun’s OP,” Dib said.

“This gun’s awesome. I want one. Messy and painful, clearly a superior weapon. I wonder if this species really uses something like that.” Zim waited for their characters to respawn.

Once they did, Dib said, “Could you stop killing me for a moment? I want to explore this map.”

They had been placed in a map filled with forests, mountains rising on either side.

So Zim kept his weapons put away, and they found each other on the map before walking around.

“The graphics are really nice,” Dib said.

“Yeah, they are, huh?” Zim tilted the camera back, checking out the sky. “I bet it’s based on the Gemulon homeworld. It’d be nice to visit, huh?”

“Maybe one day,” Dib replied. “Of course, knowing you, you’d just want to invade it.”

“I can appreciate a planet without wanting to invade it. Besides, a place this pretty should be left alone.”

“Really?” Dib gave him a look. “Earth has places just as pretty, if not prettier, and you’re trying to conquer it.”

“Earth is filled with gross cities and highways and industrialization.”

Dib gave him a disbelieving look. “Zim, have you ever gone beyond the city limits?”

“Of course I have, I went to the North Pole that one time. An icy wasteland, that is.”

“There are mountains around the city!”

“Eh. They’re boring, not near as impressive as these.”

Dib grabbed Zim’s arm. “When we get back to Earth, I’m taking you sightseeing. I’m going to prove to you how beautiful it is.”

“Good luck with that. Hey look, a shack.” Zim started exploring an old building, finding that it had ammo in it.

Dib sighed, lowering his controller. “Let’s play something else.”

Zim gave him a quizzical look, then shrugged. “Okay.”

They switched to an adventure game that seemed to involve rescuing a town from its tyrant ruler. However, it was open map, so they just blew off the main mission and went off to explore. They admired strange trees, fought animals that in some ways were similar to ones on Earth, and in other ways were completely foreign. They killed bandits and looted caves. And when soldiers came after them, they killed them too.

They were pretty invested in a side quest when the ship announced, “Approaching destination, two minutes until arrival.”

Zim was silent for a moment as he translated it, unused to spoken Gemulon, then he relayed it to Dib.

They turned the game off and got up, going back to the bridge. Zim slid on a headset. “I’m going to negotiate first. If they don’t give GIR back, then we’ll use violence.”

“Whatever you say.” Dib waited, hands hovering over the controls. They slowed down, approaching a moon orbiting a gas giant. Directly ahead of them was what appeared to be a military base, with high fences and several interconnected buildings. A visible force field was around it. Dozens of ships were parked, many looking beat up, and clearly composed of scrap metal. But they all had similar colors and logos.

“GIR is in that compound somewhere.” Zim began pinging the base, trying to get someone to answer. He saw a satellite dish rotate toward him- really, they needed a physical dish? Pathetic! Then a face appeared on screen. He was prepared for nearly anything, but what he saw still shocked him.

“Hello, Zim,” the blue-eyed irken said to him in their native language, smiling pleasantly. “We were wondering when you would get here.”


	6. Freedom Fighters

“What?!” Zim yelled, so surprised he forgot to use irken. He hastily switched to his language. “You’re an irken! You’re, how did you, why-”

“Yes, I’m irken,” she said patiently. “But that’s not the point. You’re here for-”

“GIR! Where is he, what have you done to him? If he’s hurt in any way I swear to the Tallest-”

She cut him off. “GIR is unharmed. Honestly, no one here could really bring themselves to hurt him even if they wanted to.” She gestured to someone offscreen, and Zim was surprised when it zoomed out and GIR ran over to hop onto her lap.

“Hi, Master!” GIR said gleefully. “I’m on vacation, look at me!”

“GIR!” Zim touched the screen for a moment, then pulled his hand back. “Are you okay? Have they hurt you?”

“I went on a looong car trip! And I made lots of friends!” GIR assured him. “They hooked a tube thing to my head when I got here but then they said I was okay and took it off and now I’ve just been having fun!” He grabbed the irken lady’s cheek and squeezed it. “This is Veldrin and she’s real nice!”

Veldrin winced and slowly pushed his hand away. “Yes, GIR has been treated well here. All we needed was the information he had. And now that we do have it, we will gladly give him back.”

“And what do you plan to do with that information?” Zim demanded. “There is top secret information in his memory banks! Classified stuff! You can’t just take that!”

“Well we can, and we just did, and if I were you I’d just go back to that Class 0 planet of yours and keep your head down.”

“Class 0?”

She raised a brow. “Yes, you did go through Invader training, didn’t you?” When Zim was silent, she said, “Oh right, you were just a regular soldier during Operation Impending Doom 1, and then you screwed up so badly they reencoded and then banished you. Oh, don't look surprised that I know all this, it was all over the news. And then you went to Conventia anyway and demanded to be given a planet in OID 2. Surprisingly, they gave you one. But then you never went through the school that the other Invaders did. Well, planets are sorted into classes based on their usefulness to the Empire. I’m not going to bore you with all the classes and honestly I don’t know all the details of each myself anymore. But I do remember this. Class 0 is absolutely undesirable and will never be added to the Empire. And why is Earth one?” She sat back in her chair, petting GIR’s head. “Because you’re there.”

Zim’s claws tightened. “What are you saying?”

Her expression softened. “Zim, you’re an outcast among your people. They don’t want you around. I know how that feels, I was in the same position. So I left and went my own way.”

“You just… Left?” Zim blinked. “How?”

“The same way you left Foodcourtia even though you were encoded to be a food drone for the rest of your life. Because…”

“Because I wanted to,” Zim finished. He stared at her, and she gave him an approving nod. “But I still went to do something that would serve my Tallest! You just abandoned your people altogether! You’re a traitor.”

“Sure am. A traitor they’ll never try to get back. Listen, I want to talk to you. Would you do me the honor of hearing me out?”

Zim slowly sat back. “Well… Go on.” He was interested in what she had to say. He had already sized her up and noticed that her right antenna was jagged in the middle, as though it had been caught on something.

“Thank you. In return for GIR’s safety, we are hoping that you don’t compromise our mission.” The screen zoomed out more, and Veldrin gestured to a collection of other aliens at computer stations all around the room. They were watching Zim with baleful expressions. Not a single one seemed glad to see him. He identified the Gnarlbusher who had grabbed GIR. There were two Vortians sitting next to each other. There was a Screwhead. And many more. With a jolt, he realized every single one of them was of a species that had been conquered by the irkens. “We are freedom fighters.”

“Freedom fighters.” Zim laced his fingers together. “So you’re rebels.”

“Yes. We’re rebels.” Veldrin put GIR down and he ran off. “We fight back against irken tyranny wherever it may be found. At least, we’re planning to. We needed info, and knew it would be easy to grab a SIR unit from an Invader on a Class 0 planet. You’re a laughingstock to your Tallest and no one would particularly care to help you. So you came alone. Well… Nearly.” She looked over at Dib. “Who’s this?”

Zim said, “That’s Dib Membrane, he’s a human. From Earth.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat, then said in English, “Nice to meet you, Dib.” He was startled, and she said, “Wait, maybe not English then? Hablas español? Sprichst du Deutsch?”

Dib hastily said, “No, no, I speak English, I just didn’t expect you to.”

“I enjoy learning languages. I dare say it’s one of my finest skills. But then, that’s why I was an interpreter. The PAK can only contain so much data. So for those who would rather not use storage space for languages, there was me. Who could speak hundreds. Thousands even. I even learned ones from Earth, just because I could.”

Zim decided to speak in English too, so Dib could understand. “Well, this is Dib. Continue, and use English so he can understand you.”

“Very well. You came pretty much alone, no military forces to help you. Because no one on Irk cares about you. Irk has become an oppressive, controlling place that forces you to fit certain specifications or you were considered useless. And it extends its tyranny into the rest of the galaxy, and even the galaxies near it, seeking to control everything in its path. It’s not right. Other races should be free to control their own destinies. So we’re going to liberate every planet under Irk’s control. At this very moment we’re analyzing the military for weaknesses and GIR’s knowledge was invaluable. Very soon we will be ready for attack. And if you get in our way, you’ll go down just like any other soldier.”

Zim was stunned by what he was hearing. Part of him screamed for her execution and the death of everyone in the base. But another part understood her motivation. Part of him sympathized with the cause. Confused, he pressed a hand to his head. “But rebelling against Irk, your own people, I… That’s suicide!”

“Maybe so but sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the better good. I care about all races in the universe. The Andromeda had a race similar to irkens, you know. Once.”

Zim tilted his head. “What happened to them?”

“They tried to be conquerors. The entire species was wiped out in the resulting war.” Veldrin’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to do that to Irk. There are good irkens out there, ones that don’t agree with what the military is doing. But so many of them can’t say so. I fight in their place, doing what they can’t. Irkens as a whole are not our enemy. The Invaders, the Tallest, the slavemasters… Those are our enemies.”

“You’ll never win,” Zim said shortly. “You’re too few, your cause is too small. It will be stamped out like all the other rebellion groups.”

“We have something those other groups don’t,” she said.

“And what’s that?”

She smiled. “Me.” She tapped some buttons and a hole opened in the force field. “I’d like to invite you in. You can just take GIR and go if you want. Or you can stay, and I’ll tell you more. I would like for you to join our group.”

Zim stared at her.

“Join a rebel group?” Dib asked. “That sounds dangerous, and thrilling, I want to save the people who have been enslaved by irkens too, can I-”

“We’re not staying,” Zim said. “We’re coming down to get GIR. Then we’re leaving. Your rebellion is getting no support from me.” He took the ship down.

Veldrin shrugged. “Your choice. I’ll bring GIR outside.” The screen turned off.

“Ugh, disgusting,” Zim said. “Seeing an irken defect like that, rebelling against her own kind… It’s gross.”

“No offense Zim, but humans do that all the time. Just because someone is your species, that doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. Awful people with horrible ideologies don’t have to be followed, no matter their position of power. That’s why we have protests. To tell the people in charge that what they’re doing is wrong. Irkens would benefit from the concept.”

“Hmph.” Zim took the ship down and landed it, but Dib could tell from the look on his face that his mind was racing.

Veldrin walked out of a building, GIR skipping along next to her. She was a good foot taller than Zim but not quite as tall as Dib, and moved with confident strides. Zim and Dib got out and went to meet them. Zim tried to be composed at first, but as GIR got closer, he smiled and broke into a run, sweeping him up in his arms and hugging him.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” He swung him around, and GIR giggled and hugged him back.

“Aww, I missed you too, Master.”

“It’s only been like a day,” Dib said. “I think. Time is weird in space.”

“Hm, try a few of your days,” Veldrin said.

“What?!” Zim shouted.

“Yeah, the area where we dropped off that tracker you so cleverly attached to our ship? Time moves slower there. I figured you’d notice.”

“No, I had no idea.” Zim shook his head. “Well, anyway. We have GIR now, we’re leaving. And I will be warning the Tallest to watch out for you.”

Veldrin sighed. “Too bad. We could have really used your expertise. I was hoping someone as smart as you would understand what we’re hoping to accomplish.” She turned and walked away.

Zim did a double-take. “Wait a second!”

She glanced back at him. “What?”

He stared at her back. She was wearing a fairly simple silver flight suit, but there was something very important missing. “You don’t have a PAK!”

“Good observation. I don’t. But I don’t feel like talking to someone who’s declared himself my enemy.” She kept going.

Zim had a quick mental debate, then growled with frustration and followed her. “Okay, can we talk then? I… I want to know about this. How are you alive without a PAK?”

She slowed so they could catch up her. “Tell me something, Invader. Are irkens born with PAKs?”

“No, of course not. They’re attached afterward.”

“Right. So what happens if, for some strange reason, an irken isn’t given a PAK?”

Zim chuckled. “That doesn’t happen. _Everyone_ , whether cloned or a very rare natural birth, is given a PAK. It’s the law.”

“I’m aware of that. But what if, hypothetically, someone swooped in and kidnapped the smeet before the PAK was attached and whisked it away?”

Zim thought about it. “I… I don’t know. We’re unconscious when born. The PAK wakes us up. So… I just don’t know. Would a smeet without a PAK wake up?”

“Eventually,” Veldrin said. “And you’ll find that it is utterly dependent on you. With no PAK, they get no boost to their development. They have to start from the beginning. Learning how to walk, how to talk, how to eat, everything. Just like any other baby.”

“Such a waste of time.”

“But that’s life. My point is, we don’t need our PAKs to live. We can make due without them,” Veldrin continued.

“That’s all well and good if you’ve never had a PAK. But once it’s attached, it does irreversible modifications to your spinal cord and brain. It plants in a device that will kill you if the PAK is missing for ten minutes. Nearly half of our minds is stored in it. You can’t just take it off and survive,” Zim said firmly.

Veldrin smiled at him. “That’s exactly what the Empire wants you to think.”

“Oh please, it’s ridiculous, you must be a defect who never received one in the first place and somehow managed to-”

Veldrin unzipped the front of her suit and pulled her arms out of it, dropping the fabric far enough so Zim could see her bare back. His words died on his tongue as he saw the characteristic two vertical holes on her back. They were directly over her spine, scarred over, but very recognizable.

“How?” Zim asked, stepping up to examine them. He reached out, hesitated, and touched the marks. “How did you do it?”

“Through a difficult medical procedure. One that only a few irken doctors know of, and would only do in the event that a PAK malfunctions and begins literally killing the host but the host is too valuable to lose. Otherwise, it isn’t done. They operate and separate the PAK completely from the body, leaving nothing inside, and go into the brain to retrieve the kill switch that causes you to normally have a life clock. Then a new PAK is placed on them. My medics here developed their own version of the procedure, but without a new PAK.”

Zim scratched his head. “But how do you transfer over the old data? If you do that, you’ll lose a ton of memory.”

“Everything I care about stayed behind.” Veldrin tapped on her head. “In here. PAKs are likened to brains, but they’re computers. Our true brain watches too, and learns, and remembers. So when my PAK was taken off, I lost hardly anything of value. If anything, it cleared my head. You know that dissonant voice in your mind that screams whenever someone suggests that the Empire has faults? It’s your PAK, controlling you. Remove it, and I promise, you’ll understand our side so much better.”

Zim looked at Dib. “Can you believe all this? She took her PAK off! That’s incredible!”

“Yeah, that is pretty cool,” Dib admitted.

Veldrin fixed her outfit, zipping it back up. “So Zim, you still have a chance. You can leave behind your oppressive people and help liberate those who were enslaved by them. Or you can go back and continue to enable injustice. Your choice.”

Zim wanted to yell at her. He wanted to learn from her. He wanted to hit her. Yet he wanted to work by her side. She seemed wise and respectable. She was a fool. He hissed and squeezed his eyes shut, turning away and grabbing his antennae. “This is stupid! You can’t take on the Irken Empire and win! You and your entire group are going to die!”

“Zim,” Dib said quietly.

“Maybe we will,” Veldrin replied. “But if we go down, we go down defending what’s right. We’ll be martyrs for our cause. And you can guarantee that by that point, we will have freed enough planets to allow the rebellion to go on without us. You think we’re the only ones doing this? We’re in contact with others. They’re looking to us to lead them, but they’re ready to risk it all for freedom. Are you?”

“I…” Zim was shaking. “I don’t know.” He was more distressed than he could ever remember being. She made sense. But at the same time she was talking nonsense. For once, his head and his heart were telling him two different things.

Dib gently rested a hand on Zim’s shoulder, looking at Veldrin. “Let me ask you something. Were you like him once?”

Zim settled a bit, curious to know how Veldrin would reply.

She watched Zim, then said, “Yes. I was very much like him. I was brainwashed into thinking I was superior than other species and that they deserved to be ruled by us because they were weak. I served a very influential businessman and would translate for him as he visited the worlds we’ve conquered to do business. I had private schooling and excellent meals and everything I could ever want. But… I began to feel uneasy. I’d look upon the helpless natives and feel pity for them. I could see how much they suffered, how they hated us, and wished things were different. I’m no soldier, I wasn’t programmed as strongly as Zim. Maybe that’s how I realized what we were doing was wrong. I did research, really looked into the actions of the military, and was appalled at everything we’ve done. Irkens are the villains, feared and hated by an entire galactic cluster. I wanted to do something. But no one would listen to my pleas for change. I was pushed aside and ignored. Labeled a heretic. Defective. My employer turned his back on me. With nowhere to go and with police forces after me, I stole one of his ships and left. Tore its tracking tech out. Got in with the rebel group that eventually made its way here and after years of work, became its leader. These people trust me now. They believe, thanks to me, that irkens can be good. In a way…” She rubbed her back. “We need our own liberation.”

Zim was hanging onto her words. She was logical and he just couldn't ignore that, as much as he wanted to deny what she was saying. “I… I want to know what it’s like. To not have my PAK fighting me when I question what I’ve been taught. I… I’ve heard so many people say we’re bad.” Zim looked at Dib. “Maybe it’s true. But… My Tallest are counting on me.”

Veldrin gave him a sympathetic look. “The Tallest? They don’t care about anyone but themselves. They especially don’t care about you, the ex-soldier who thinks he can be an Invader. Face it, you aren’t going to ever have their favor. Please stop lying to yourself.”

Zim stared at the ground. He looked defeated.

Dib knelt next to him. “Zim, I’m sorry, but she’s right. Your leaders are bad. Your military is corrupted. Your Empire sustains itself through slavery. Do you really want to be part of that?”

“I don’t know,” Zim whispered.

GIR, who has been uncharacteristically silent throughout the conversation, sadly patted Zim’s hand. “Master?” he asked.

“Yes?” Zim replied, looking at him, antennae raising slightly.

“I think you should join her,” he said simply.

Zim gazed at him, and said, “Do you really think so?”

“Yeah. She wants to help you. She wants to help lots of people. I think we should be good, and help too.”

Zim exhaled and straightened, hand slipping away from GIR’s. “We’ll be criminals. Traitors. Never again allowed back on Irk.”

“Weren’t you already all those things?” Dib pointed out.

Zim cringed. “Don’t.”

“Think about the fun you’ve had on this trip. Not having to worry about invading. We flew around, played video games, worked on spaceships… I mean okay, that last part was tedious. But still. You can do so much more with your life. You want to be great, I get that! So be great! Be great by liberating galaxies! So all these aliens here, and in every other rebel group, can go home! So everyone’s lives can go back to normal! Sure, they might all have issues on their own planets, but we can at least help by removing the irken reign. Don’t you think?”

Zim looked at him, antennae trembling. “Be great… by liberating galaxies. Wow. That makes it sound impressive.”

“It is impressive. And I think you can do it. Imagine how much people will adore you if you save them? And they’ll truly adore you, they’ll call you brave, and selfless, and great. You just have to put aside everything your society forced on you.”

For a while, Zim said nothing. Veldrin waited, talking to Dib and GIR, telling them about the operation here.

Finally Zim said, “Okay.” Dib perked up, and Veldrin smiled with delight. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Yay, we’re gonna be rebels!” GIR cheered. He whistled and did a little dance.

Zim stepped up to Veldrin, pointing at her. “Do the operation on me. Remove my PAK. Then we can see how I really feel.”

“You really don't have to remove it, it does have useful weapons and-”

Zim interrupted, “I want it taken off. I want to know what you're talking about when you say you feel better without yours.”

“As you wish. Follow me.” Veldrin led the way toward one of the largest buildings.


	7. Procedure

The group entered a medical facility. It was staffed by Slirfs, and Zim felt a little hesitant at the sight of them.

“The Slirfs have graciously granted refuge to us,” Veldrin said. “They gave us this base and in return, we’ve shared technology with them. Now several work with us and have promised their assistance once we finally take the fight to the irkens.”

“That’s very kind of them,” Dib said.

Veldrin went up to the counter and said, “Please inform Dr. Yehew that I need the _special_ operation performed on an irken named Zim.”

The other nodded and picked up a phone.

“We haven’t begun any large scale attacks yet, but we do sometimes hop back over to the Milky Way to do quick hit and runs on irken outposts to disrupt military supply trains,” Veldrin explained. “We very often get injured during those trips. Thus the need for a hospital. And sometimes we provide care for passing aliens who need it. Keeps pretty good money coming in.”

Zim nodded in understanding. GIR ran over to begin playing with magazines in the waiting area, and after a few minutes, a Slirf who they assumed was Dr. Yehew walked in.

“Good morning sir, doing well?” Veldrin asked.

“Very well, young miss, how are you?” He shook her hand.

“Good, good.” She pulled Zim over by the arm. “This is Zim, a fellow irken. He has decided to join our cause. I need a repeat of the procedure that was done on me.”

Dr. Yehew examined him. “It’s been years since we performed that procedure. The last one was on you.”

“I know, but… At least you’ve done it before. You did it to me with no practice, and it worked out.”

“Indeed, we did. I can pull up the records and certainly replicate it. Zim, was it?”

Zim nodded. “Yep, that’s me.”

“Nice to meet you. When will you be ready to start?”

Zim shrugged, nervously patting his legs. “Whenever, I guess.”

Dr. Yehew said, “We could begin now if you want.”

“Cool, let’s… Yeah.”

“I wanna watch,” Dib said.

“GIR, stay here,” Zim ordered. GIR saluted him, and went back to playing.

They followed the doctor through the building, going up to the second floor and into a surgical suite.

“All members present must wear the proper protective gear,” Dr. Yehew said. He dropped scrubs and face masks into Dib and Veldrin’s arms. “Go put these on and thoroughly wash your hands with soap and hot water. Once you return, stand back. You may observe but do not interfere.”

Veldrin leaned over to translate for Dib, and then they walked out.

“I need to learn irken,” Dib lamented.

“I’ll be happy to teach you,” she replied.

“Really?”

“Well yeah, you are joining up too, right?”

“Absolutely, I want to stop the Irken Empire at any cost.”

“Then I will teach you.”

They found that the changing room had no gender division. Dib supposed they had no reason to care. Still, it was unusual for him. He focused on the clothes, pulling them on over his old clothes, though he elected to leave his trench coat in a locker. He pulled boot covers on, and began washing his hands.

“So what’s your relation to Zim?” Veldrin asked.

“He’s the asshole who’s trying to conquer my planet, someone had to stop him. Though really, he’s pretty incompetent and even after all the time he’s been there, couldn’t actually conquer it. So I kinda stopped caring. He goes to school and stuff with me, and I like him, he’s smart and fun when he’s not being annoying, and I… I was always hoping he’d give up. So we could be friends. Thank you for getting through to him finally.”

“No problem. He was stubborn though.” Veldrin dried her hands off. “But soldiers always are. I’m glad I got him to see reason. He’ll be a valuable member of the team. Once that PAK is off, he’ll understand us even more.”

“I hope so.”

They pulled their masks on and returned to the surgical suite. There, they pulled on gloves, and stood back.

Zim was already sitting on the table, apparently having already disrobed, with a thin blanket pulled around him. He looked extremely nervous as Dr. Yehew consulted a file with a few other surgeons.

“It’s a complex procedure,” Veldrin said to Dib. “The first and most important thing is to make sure the anesthesia had completely taken hold before you start. You have to make sure the PAK can’t seize control of the body to defend itself. Then they’re going to take a… Um, I don’t know what I’d call it in your language, but it’s like an electric wand they’ll prod into the PAK to deactivate it. It’ll basically be like removing one in any other situation. At that point they’ve got ten minutes. The panels are all opened up. Certain switches will be flipped to make it begin retracting all its wiring. This takes a while and they will return bloody, as they’ve been implanted since birth and will have to pull free of nerves and muscles. Once all of them are retrieved, the PAK is fully detached and set aside for later destruction, once its data is fully downloaded onto an external hard drive. For analysis and in case Zim gets amnesia. Mostly analysis. He got a military grade PAK which is no doubt full of secrets. Then comes the messy part. The surgeons will have to go in and cut open his arms, legs, and back lengthwise, to ensure all the wires are out and to stop the internal bleeding and possibly splice nerves and whatnot back together. During this, one talented person, Dr. Yehew most likely, will cut open his skull, and locate the death chip and cut it out. Removing it from his brain stem will prevent it from killing him at the end of the ten minutes. Then it’s safe to continue operating at a usual pace. They’ll be done repairing the damage from the wiring in thirty minutes to an hour and then he’ll just have to be sewn up and allowed to heal.”

Zim was listening in the whole time, and nervously clutched his chest. “Oh boy. Wow, uh… That sounds painful.”

“We have excellent facilities here,” she assured him. “I said sewn up for lack of a better term, but it’s not needle and thread. They’ll use accelerated cellular regeneration to close your skin back up. It won’t take long at all. It’s just the internal healing that will take a few days.”

“Oh. That makes me feel a little better.” Zim still fidgeted though.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Dr. Yehew assured him. “We have fine doctors here who will take very good care of you. Now let’s take a quick scan and see what we’re working with, and we can get started.” He pulled over a machine that Dib thought looked a lot like an X-ray. Zim was directed to lay on his stomach with his arms at his sides, head turned to the side. He did, and the first image was taken. He was asked to turn his head forward, and another, closer one was taken.

“Should I be in here?” Dib asked. “Radiation and all?”

“It uses magnetic imaging,” Veldrin replied. “No radiation.”

“Oh. Good.” Dib rubbed his neck. Should have figured.

It was weird seeing Zim wearing nothing but that sheet he was covering himself with, and even then, with him laying on the table it was moved down to his hips, leaving his upper body bare. He shivered from the cold.

After consulting the scans and discussing them, the doctors got started. They made sure Zim was comfortable, hooking up monitoring equipment, and then the anesthesiologist came over. She spoke to him calmly and his voice shook when he answered. He didn’t trust any doctors that weren’t irken. But Veldrin had gone through this and survived. And if she, an interpreter with no military background, could handle it, so could he.

At least, he didn’t think she had military training. “Hey, Veldrin?” he called.

She walked over to him. “Hm?”

“How did you escape Irk? If they called you a traitor, wouldn’t they have tried to kill you?”

“The key word is tried. Even if I was made to be an interpreter, I knew I would potentially go to dangerous planets with people that would try to kill me or my boss. So I was trained to fight. And I knew how to fly ships. When they came to arrest me for my heresy, I escaped. I wasn’t completely home-free though.” She pointed to her jagged antenna. “Guard grabbed me here and nearly yanked the stalk right out of my skull as I jumped in the ship. I fought him off and was half blind for days as it healed, though it never quite straightened out. This antenna is partly deaf to this day. And then in the firefight as I left the surface, I got this.” She slid her collar down, showing him a white burn scar covering part of the left side of her chest and shoulder. “Shot me through the window. I managed to cover the hole before leaving the surface and entering hyperspace. But it was a while before I could get attention for the burn. I’ll always have this.”

“Oh. I’m... sorry.”

Veldrin shrugged and fixed her collar. “It just proved what I knew. The Empire can’t stand dissenters. It’s a dictatorship that rules by intimidation and it needs to be brought down.”

“Zim, we’re about to begin,” the anesthesiologist informed him, holding a mask. He took a breath, and nodded. She fit it against his mouth and strapped it into place. “It may take a while to take effect due to your anatomy. Just take deep breaths.”

He did so, eyelids drooping.

After a few moments, Dib took his hand.

“Will it hurt?” Zim mumbled, exhaustion creeping over him. The anesthesia was pleasantly cool as he inhaled it.

“No, you won’t feel a thing,” Dib assured him. “Relax. Just breathe.”

Zim grunted and closed his eyes. His antennae went limp, the tension leaving his body.

Dib watched him, listening to the beeping of the heart monitor, and finally Dr. Yehew said, “He’s out. Quickly, deactivate his PAK before it wakes him up.”

Dib let go of Zim’s hand, and he and Veldrin backed up. The PAK made a series of beeps, panels flashing red. The doctors opened the panels and reached in with a small tool. There was a sizzle of electricity, and the beeping stopped. On a nearby monitor, a countdown began.

The tool was set aside, and using tiny tweezers, they undid some clasps and manually opened the entire pod. Carefully, Zim’s PAK legs were disconnected.

“They have to remove those,” Veldrin whispered. “The PAK has a chance of reactivating and deploying them. If they’re out, they can’t move.”

Dib nodded in understanding.

The legs were placed on a nearby table. The doctors hurried to remove several components, getting them out of the way so they could access the inner control panel. They began flipping the switches Veldrin had mentioned.

Dib’s stomach coiled as he saw Zim’s limbs shift unpleasantly, skin rising and falling in places. Even from here, he could just hear the sound of ripping, and saw lines of pink form, beginning to bruise.

The unnatural crawling condensed into Zim’s back and went up his spine. Dr. Yehew immediately moved into action, picking up a scalpel and bone saw.

Dib couldn’t watch. As soon as he saw the first incision into the back of Zim’s head, he had to turn away. “Never mind, can’t do it.”

Veldrin did commentary for him. “They’re taking his PAK off completely. It’s still got some stubborn wires hanging in there… oh, they slipped out. Looks like they’re whole. No wild strands sticking out. The little rings around the ports in his back are being detached. The skin is extremely bruised underneath. That’ll scar just like mine. Maybe even worse, since due to his PAK legs, he’s put a lot of strain onto that area carrying his weight around. PAK is being taken over to another table and a technician is standing by to take it. Alright, it’s gone. Dr. Yehew just parted the skin on his scalp into two flaps and is cutting into the bone underneath. He has five minutes to get to the chip.”

Dib glanced back at the procedure. Luckily, with how the doctor was leaning over Zim now, he couldn't really see the blood.

But now the others were cutting his limbs open to do their repairs inside, which involved removing the sheet entirely, and Dib decided to turn away to respect Zim’s modesty.

Veldrin had no such inhibitions. She watched everything, fascinated. “I used to want to be a doctor. Now I realize how hard the work is and know I could never do it. But it’s still cool to watch.”

“I do like watching stuff like this on TV,” Dib admitted. “But in person, it’s way more gross.”

“Sure is. Oh, okay, Dr. Yehew took a square of skull off. He’s very carefully reaching down the back of the brain. The chip is buried into the brain stem, ready to cut off all involuntary processes like breathing and the heart beat. It’s already working on it due to its separation from the PAK. But it won’t get to execute the final command. Zim’s organs will be free to operate on their own once it’s removed.”

“Will they be able to?”

“Yep. They’ll be weak, but they’ll recover. The brain is remarkable at healing. Okay, he’s pausing. And… He just grabbed. Pulling, he paused, he just reached in with scissors to snip something. And… It’s out! Haha, he just removed it.”

Dib looked again. Dr. Yehew was holding a small black computer chip with wires hanging off it. He took it over to a tray and dropped it in, then returned to Zim’s head, cleaning it up.

Veldrin said, “Wow, that was neat. Now he’s just making sure no blood got into the skull, and fitting the bone back into place. A quick spray of nanogel and his cells are being encouraged to heal much faster than usual. Won’t even be a fracture in that bone in a few minutes.”

Dr. Yehew pulled the skin back together and did the same with it, and gently held it in place while the cells knit together. Then he moved to help the others.

Dib let out a sigh of relief when the countdown stopped. Veldrin patted his back.

“He’ll be okay now,” she said. “Without that PAK screaming into his head, he’ll be able to rationalize like never before. It’ll be hard for him, but he needs to understand.”

“Do you think he’ll regret it?” Dib asked.

She bit her lip. “He might at first. I did. But that’s just because of how confused I was, sorting out what I truly believed and what the PAK made me believe. But in time he’ll be thankful, like I was. I hope.”

They watched as Zim’s limbs and back were fixed and the skin closed up, and medicine was rubbed in to help with the bruises. The gaping holes on his back were taking a while to close, so they were bandaged to keep them clean.

Once they were finally done, they cleaned any stray blood off of Zim and carefully laid a sheet back over him.

“It was a success,” Dr. Yehew said. “No pieces of the PAK remained behind and we fixed all the damage it left. He’ll need only a few days to heal.”

“Thank you so much,” Veldrin said. They all left to clean up and change clothes, and once Dib got back, Zim was moved to a recovery room.

He was kept hooked up to a couple monitors, but otherwise his room was empty. Dib sat in a chair and waited, and Veldrin brought him food.

It was an unusual meat that seemed to have been boiled, some sort of mashed up vegetable, and a fruit drink. It wasn’t really bad, just alien. He was starving though, and as far as he was concerned, it was delicious.

Veldrin stayed with him the whole time, talking to him about Earth, and telling stories from her time on Irk. Their cultures had some similarities, and there were differences. They both enjoyed comparing them, and even began teaching each other words and idioms in their own languages.

After about an hour, Zim stirred. His antennae flicked, claws digging into the bed slightly, and he groaned.

“Zim?” Dib asked, standing and going to the edge of the bed.

Zim made a weak cough, and then said, “Dib?”

“Hey, man, how are you?” Dib said, not sure what else to say.

Zim shifted, groaning. “I feel heavy. Mouth all… dry… Head filled with cotton.”

“You’re recovering from the anesthesia,” Veldrin explained. “You’ll feel better once it wears off. Anything else? Any pain?”

“Feel… light. And… weird. I feel weird but can’t explain why.” Zim slowly pushed himself up.

“You should probably keep laying down,” Veldrin suggested.

“I’m fine.” Zim rubbed his eyes and yawned. He started to reach behind him, and Veldrin lunged forward, grabbing his wrist and stopping him.

“You can’t touch your back, it needs to heal,” she said.

He scowled and tugged his hand away. “Fine.” He looked over his shoulder instead, and his eyes grew wide. “It’s gone. So you really did… And I’m alive? And it’s been…?”

“A couple hours, definitely,” Dib said.

“Wow! So it’s possible! This is crazy!” Zim stretched out, then groaned. “Oh, ow, I hurt all over.”

“Yeah, that’s why you need to relax,” Veldrin said. “You won’t heal as fast without your PAK, so please just lay down and rest. Maybe think things over, now that it’s gone.”

“I kinda have a headache,” Zim confessed.

“That’s normal. Your PAK is no longer blocking out pain signals or regulating anything for you. It’s all you. Your thoughts, emotions, and actions. You choose your own destiny now.”

Zim thought about their earlier conversations. He understood now what she meant. He felt a lot different without his PAK. His mind was quieter. He still had pride in himself, was confident, but he saw now that he has done some truly horrible things, all because his programming told him it was okay. Now that programming was gone. He wasn’t half computer anymore. He was just… irken.

He slowly felt his face. Everything felt off. Sensation seemed just a little more acute, a little more real. He was also very sluggish, and it occurred to him that before, his PAK used electrical energy to keep him alive. Now his body had to produce its own energy.

“I’m hungry,” he decided. “Could I get something to eat?”

“Of course,” Veldrin said. “I’ll be right back.” She got up and walked out.

Zim turned a bit, resting his head on his arms and looking at Dib. After a few moments, he said, “Thank you for coming with me.”

Dib set a hand on his back. “No problem. I'm proud of you for doing this. It's hard to change your beliefs, but when confronted with facts, it's the right thing to do. And deciding to help liberate all the races that irkens have conquered? That's very noble.”

“I feel like I just woke up,” Zim confessed. “I mean, yeah, I did just wake up. But I mean like, it feels like everything up until now was a dream. All my memories are hazy. I don't know whether that's good or bad.”

“It's probably just because your PAK's gone. Veldrin said it holds a lot of memory. Now you just kinda have to remember it all yourself. But I'm sure it'll clear up once you get used to it.”

“Guess so.” Zim was quiet for a bit, reflecting. Dib watched him, not knowing what to say. He could still hardly believe that Zim had actually done this. That someone had finally gotten through to him about his mission being a lie, that he needed to give up on it and pursue a different path. But Veldrin had done it. And now they were both part of a rebel group and would be fighting back against the Irken Empire. He had no idea all of this would be happening, all he wanted was to tag along to get GIR back from aliens, not get caught up in all this. But he didn't regret it. He would help them however he could.

Veldrin returned with food, and Zim propped himself up on an arm to eat. He was hesitant about most of it, but still finished off the plate, knowing that he needed the strength. Then Veldrin took a seat on the edge of the bed and talked to him, and he was honest with her about how he felt now.

“I feel like I can make a difference,” he said, meeting her eyes. “A good difference. I wasn't allowed to choose what I wanted to be, just like all those people didn't choose to be enslaved. I... I want to free them and give them their free will back, and I want other irkens to be able to have free will like us. It's time for change on Irk, and I'll do my best to cause it. I'm still not sure if it'll work out, we'll probably get killed, but... it's worth fighting for.”

She smiled and nodded. “I'm glad you see now why we're doing this. And I'd like to bring more irkens to our side. Help them see there's a different way. We can be such a wonderful, strong people if we change our society. And I mean strong in the real way, earning respect instead of demanding it, treating each other fairly, letting people follow their own paths. Letting people speak their minds without fear of punishment. We deserve that.”

“Absolutely!” Zim put his plate aside and grinned. “I have so many ideas too for how we can go about this!”

“Oh, do you?”

“Of course, I'm excellent at planning! And I know the irken military like the back of my hand, I can get you anything you want to know.”

Veldrin laughed. “Very good! I will certainly get your input in the future, but for now, you need to rest. Dib, I'd recommend leaving him alone for the night so he can relax. Why don't I show you to your room?”

“Oh, uh... sure,” he agreed, getting up. “Zim, will you be alright?”

“I'll be fine,” Zim assured him. “I'm feeling great and I'll be out of here in no time! See you later, Dib!”

Veldrin walked out with Dib, and once they were in the hallway, Dib leaned over to her and whispered, “He changed really fast. Is that normal?”

She was looking at the door thoughtfully. Then she said, “Zim is publicly known to be defective. Once he went on trial for his crimes, and though he was found guilty, when the Control Brains tried to erase his PAK, it was able to overpower them and drive them to insanity, and they let him go. He's dangerous because of how independent he is. The Tallest, the Control Brains, it didn't matter... no one could really control him. Now that I see how he is now, I believe that his defective PAK has been the driving force behind all his decisions since he was a smeet. Now that it's gone, he's not quite sure what to do with himself, and is agreeable with me, an authority figure. Because he's been used to serving authority for so long. Right now he's no doubt confused, dizzy from anesthesia, weak... We'll see how he is tomorrow, once he has time to think things over.”

“Good idea.”

Dib was taken to the barracks, and found that everyone got to have their own rooms, unless they requested to share. He debated whether or not he wanted to share with Zim, then elected to get his own. Veldrin promised she would let Zim be his neighbor. She sent for his stuff to be retrieved from the ship, and he thanked the Slirf who brought it in for him.

After making sure GIR was okay (he was apparently staying in the hospital with Zim), Dib went to bed, excited to see what tomorrow would bring.


	8. Reflection

Dib slept quite comfortably in the provided quarters. He wasn’t woken up at any point, instead getting to wake up when he wanted to. He was a little disoriented at first, before remembering where he was. A base in the Andromeda Galaxy. With rebels against the Irken Empire. He hurried to his feet, starting to get dressed before noticing that someone had come into his room and left a bundle of clothes and a note.

He picked up the note first. It was written in English, so he figured it had to be from Veldrin.

_Dib, I left you some uniforms, hopefully they fit well. If not, find me and let me know. Your first order of business will be to have breakfast in the chow hall, you can’t have eaten very well on the way over, and you’ll need your strength for our preparations. After, please go visit Zim and then bring me a report on his recovery, as I have prior engagements this morning. I’ll let you know after that what I want you to do. Respectfully, Veldrin._

Dib lowered the note. He had no clue where the chow hall was. But he went ahead and got dressed, pulling on the uniform. It was similar to what Veldrin and the other aliens wore, mostly silver and loose fitting, with purple accents. There was a decent number of pockets, and he checked them out. It was comfortable, at least. Tough on the outside, but soft inside. Kinda felt like wearing pajamas. He went to the bathroom and brushed his hair and teeth, put on deodorant, and headed out.

He went up to another freedom fighter and tried to ask them where the chow hall was, but they didn’t understand him. After a few attempts at communicating, Dib finally just pointed at his mouth and mimed eating.

The other understood, and pointed to a building. Dib thanked them and started for it.

He was only halfway there though when he was intercepted, the alien pushing what looked like an earbud into his hands.

“What?” he asked, staring at it.

The other, a Vortian as Dib knew from Zim, pointed at an identical device in their own ear. Dib flipped it on and fit it inside his ear. He winced when wires slid out of it and began winding their way in deep, but he decided to wait this out.

The Vortian said, “Veldrin added English to all these. Can you understand now?”

Dib gave a start as he heard his voice in English. “Oh, wow! Yeah!”

“That translator is waterproof, nearly unbreakable, and works in real time. Leave it on and you’ll have no trouble understanding any of us.”

“Thanks!”

The other nodded and patted his arm. “I’m Lug. Welcome to the team.”

“Dib.” Dib shook his hand.

Lug gave a toothy smile. “On Vort, we greet each other with a firm headbutt.”

“Ah.” Dib eyed the curved horns on the other’s head. There was enough room though between them for his own forehead. He braced his legs and knelt, and the other did the same. After a moment steeling himself, Dib threw his head forward.

Lug just barely tilted his forward to meet him, but it was still like hitting a rock. Their skulls cracked together, and Dib reeled back, grabbing his head as Lug laughed.

“Very few are as hardheaded as a Vortian,” he said. “But at least you didn’t start bleeding.”

“No but I’ll probably have a bruise.” Dib rubbed his forehead, but the pain had already receded to just a dull ache. “Could you tell me where the chow hall is?”

“Sure thing, I’m heading there now.”

It turned out to be right next door. They walked there together, talking a bit, but Lug wasn’t really that chatty. He just told Dib that he and his wife escaped Vort and came to this galaxy to find shelter. They learned of the rebellion and joined it. And that was that.

Dib didn’t press for any more details. They entered the chow hall and went to the serving lines. There were more people than Dib expected. At least a hundred, easily, and obviously not everyone ate at the same time so there were likely far more on the base. There were really this many people against the Irken Empire? Maybe they could make a difference.

The food was all strange to Dib. He considered all his choices carefully, going between different lines, before finally just deciding to experiment. He went to the main line and asked for something that looked like scrambled eggs, and strips of fried meat that he likened to bacon. He also picked up a couple slices of bread, planning to make a sandwich.

After grabbing fruit and a glass of water, he looked around to see if he was supposed to pay or check out or anything, but it seemed he didn’t, so he went and sat down.

He assembled his sandwich and took a nervous bite. It was pretty good. Rich and meaty, and the eggs tasted pretty similar to a chicken’s, except more bland. But the meat compensated for that. He finished it off in between gulps of water, and then nibbled on the fruit as he looked around the room. There wasn’t much to say about the fruit. It was sweet and soft and kinda reminded him of an apple.

He got a few curious looks as he ate, but no one bothered him, just chatting and discussing their various agendas for the day.

Once he was done, he took his tray over to a rack of other used trays, and then headed out. He jogged over to the hospital, going in and asking if he was allowed to go up and visit Zim.

The nurse at the counter consulted her computer. “He’s doing well, he already got his morning medicine and should be awake. Go on up.”

Dib headed for the elevator. A quick trip up and he was strolling into Zim’s room. “Hey, Zim!”

“Dib!” Zim called, sitting up. He was on his back now, but seemed healthier than yesterday, pushing his upper body up entirely and waving to him.

“How are you feeling?” Dib asked, going over to stand next to the bed.

“Pretty good, they have some great medicine here! I mean, irken technology is better, but their stuff is almost as good. The doctor said this morning that I could lay on my back now, as the wounds shouldn’t be torn back open again. But they told me not to twist from side to side too much, just in case. But I’m only a little sore, so I’m doing pretty good.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling well. But what do you think about not having your PAK, now that you’ve had time to reflect on it?”

Zim’s expression grew serious. “It’s strange, Dib. It’s very strange. I was so used to it that I didn’t even know the difference between what I wanted and what it wanted. I thought it was all the same. That everything I ever desired was good, and right. Well… I don’t regret a lot of things even now, but others I do. I… I don’t know why I was in so much denial before. It was so clear that I was banished. That I was supposed to stay away. But my PAK, for all its faults, was programmed with fierce loyalty and it urged me to go back and try to impress my Tallest. So I did. And they gave me a planet they didn’t want and sent me away, just to keep me away from them. Hoping I’d die in space, no doubt.” Zim wrapped his arms around his knees. “I really must thank you and Veldrin for telling me how things really were. I didn’t want to hear it, but I needed to. So thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s gotta be hard changing after an entire lifetime of doing things a certain way, and being told there was only one way to serve your Empire. But now you’re free. You don’t have to obey them anymore. And we can work together as freedom fighters.”

Zim laid back against a pillow, sighing. “Yeah. It’s very hard. But I made my choice. No going back now.” He gazed at GIR, who was asleep in the armchair. “All this just because I had to go rescue that bot from aliens. I should have just stayed at home.”

“They probably would have found a way to take him anyway,” Dib pointed out. “You’ve been needing to realize this stuff anyway. I’ve been trying to get through to you for years. Finally I did. Or maybe it was Veldrin who finally convinced you. Either way, you let go of your mission. You chose to stop doing something that would have brought harm to billions of people. I’m proud of you.”

Zim stared at him with wide eyes. “You’re proud of me?”

“Of course. I always knew you had good in you. And you proved it. And look at what you’re about to do, how many people you’re going to help. That’s something to be proud of, for sure.”

“Heh, wow. Thanks.” Smiling, Zim crossed his arms behind his head and watched the ceiling. “Of course I made the right choice. I’m great, I always make the right choices.”

Dib chuckled. “Sure you do. Anything else you wanna say before I head out?”

“Yeah.” Zim reached over to take his hand. “I might have said this yesterday, but I was still woozy so I’ll say it again. Thank you for coming with me on this trip. It’s really been better having someone with me. I’m… sorry for how horribly I treated you in the past. You were just trying to defend your home. If someone came to Irk trying to conquer it, I’d fight them too. You didn’t deserve everything I did to you. I’m surprised you even want to be near me.”

Dib shrugged. “You were a soldier doing a mission, or at least you thought you were. I understood that you felt obligated to do all that stuff. I mean, in the military, you have to obey orders. That’s the culture you have. I hated you at first, but slowly got used to you. I stopped seeing you as threatening, and I listened in on irken broadcasts to learn about your race, and that’s how I found out you were banished. Ever since, I’ve just kinda felt bad for you. You didn’t really deserve the sorts of things I did to you either. We both got off to a really bad start with each other, but that’s behind us now. I want us to work together. If that’s okay with you.”

Zim smiled, winding his fingers through Dib’s. “Perfectly okay. We work well together and I never wanted to acknowledge it. But now I will. You’re brilliant and kind and I would like to be your friend.”

“I think, in a way, we already were friends,” Dib said. “We just never wanted to admit it. So yeah, I agree. Let’s be friends.”

Zim leaned up, drawing him into a hug. Dib tensed, then slowly relaxed, wrapping his arms around him and holding him close. He wasn’t as warm as a human, but he was warm enough, and Dib enjoyed the hug. He patted Zim’s back, avoiding the wounds, and slowly let him go.

“Alright. I’ve gotta go check in with Veldrin,” Dib said.

“Okay. It was nice talking to you. I feel so… I don’t know. Free. Light. Like…” He shifted his shoulders. “Like a burden has been lifted. Thank Veldrin for me.”

“I will,” he promised. He briefly greeted GIR, who had woken up during the discussion but was amusing himself with a handheld game.

“Hi!” GIR said cheerfully, waving as he left.

Dib wondered what GIR would do. Though he was defective, he was meant to help with invasions. Would he be able to rebel against irkens? His programming probably couldn’t be so easily fought. But then again, it could certainly be changed. GIR would be fine.

Dib went to find Veldrin. After asking around, he was directed to a small building near the center of the base. He went in and realized it was the command center that she had contacted them from when they arrived. There were various people already at work, glancing at him curiously. And at the back of the room, on a raised platform, was Veldrin.

She stood when he came in. “Welcome, Dib. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I hope you weren’t waiting too long, Zim got talkative,” Dib said as he went over and climbed the stairs on the platform. Along with a desk and several monitors, there were bookshelves and chairs, and a table with an assortment of weapons.

“It’s fine.” She gestured to a chair near her desk. “Sit down, tell me how he’s doing.”

Dib sat, and she did too. “He’s doing well, he said he’s not really in any pain, just sore. He was in a pretty good mood, too. He told me he understands what you’re doing, and he regrets the way he used to treat me. He accepted that he was banished and that his people don’t care about him. And… He said he wanted to be my friend.”

She smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. Being free of his PAK has already done wonders for him. Imagine how the rest of the irken race will change once we offer them the operation.”

“Will they all have to remove their PAKs?” Dib asked.

“Ideally, I would like that,” Veldrin said. “But we won’t make them. We simply wish to show them what it’s like to not have one. They can decide for themselves. After all, there are millions of irkens scattered all across a galactic cluster, practically… From the region you know as the Large Magellanic Cloud, where Irk is, to the small nearby dwarf galaxies and into the huge Milky Way that neighbors it. Countless millions of light-years. Removing the PAK safely from every single one of them would be nearly impossible. But they will have the option. We’ll train doctors on the procedure. We’ll call for removal of the law that makes PAK installment mandatory. Otherwise, people will just have to adjust on their own.”

“Do you think they will?”

“Eventually. Even irkens can change, given enough time. Of course, our takeover will have to involve the removal of Red and Purple as Tallest. If we put a new leader in place, then they can begin fixing the laws and hopefully most people will be willing to listen to them.”

Dib nodded. “So how do we get rid of them?”

Veldrin gave him a steady look. “At this point? Unfortunately, we have no choice but to kill them.”


	9. First Day

“Kill them?” Dib asked. “Really? There’s no other choice?”

“I know Red and Purple pretty well. They’re stubborn. They won’t give in to our demands. And as long as they rule, they’ll keep fighting back. We have to remove them from power. And in our society, there’s only two ways to do that. If someone grows taller than them, or if they die. Well, there is no one taller. And probably won’t be for years, since tall irkens are cloned in cycles. So we have no choice but to kill them. We’re already in contact with the next tallest irken after them, a brilliant scientist on the Massive named Fray. She’s there so they can keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t get any taller. I… Fear for her, honestly, the Tallest are very protective of their position. But regardless, we’ve set up secure communications with her and she assured us that if our rebellion is successful, she will take the position of Tallest and help us in any way she can.”

“Really? Why would she do that?”

Veldrin smiled. “Because her programming isn’t as stringent as most. She was natural born.”

“Zim mentioned that before. There are natural born irkens?”

“Yes. They’re very rare, but yes. Most of us don’t bother with relationships, and especially not reproduction, since cloning has become the norm. Those that are sexually active usually take birth control, and ours is very effective. No risk of pregnancy at all. So for a smeet to be born naturally, it is pretty much guaranteed to be wanted and carefully planned for. And natural borns have a privilege over most. Though they receive a PAK like the rest of us, they weren’t designed for a particular function. They just exist, their destiny is theirs for the choosing. Sure, they may struggle a little since they weren’t optimized for a certain career, but still. A little hard work and they can easily catch up to the rest. So you know what kind of programming their PAKs have? A very simple one. Basic irken language, mathematics, and other knowledge. A general loyalty to their planet, an ingrained desire to please the Tallest and follow the decrees of the Control Brains. But that’s it. So they can be swayed by logic. Fray chose to be a scientist and is now a leading physicist. She responds to reason. I was able to convince her of why the Empire needed change. I told her to look up the atrocities that have been committed by the irken military. She was horrified by them, and agreed with me that it needs to end. So yes, we now have a powerful ally on the Massive itself.”

“That’s good. Still… Killing Red and Purple. Geeze. That’s going to be quite a task.”

“I know. But we train every day to fight, and when we eventually reach the Massive, we’ll be ready. Don’t underestimate my troops.”

Dib lifted his hands. “I’m not. I’m sure they can do it. Well, uh… So what now? Where do we start? When do we start?”

“Once Zim recovers we’ll have him help us with the strategy to take back the galaxies. We’re working on breaking through the encryption on his PAK right now, but it’s a doozy. Still, once we’re in, we’ll be able to pull a lot of useful info off it too.”

“Okay. And how about me, what’ll I do?”

She regarded him. “You’ll be trained like everyone else, your specialty found, and then you’ll be assigned to a unit based on it. We have pilots, weapons operators, ground troops, computer technicians, physicians, mechanics, intel officers… All kinds of jobs. But when it comes down to it, odds are you’ll be out in the front, on other planets, fighting off the irkens ruling them.”

“I mean, I’m really good with computers,” Dib said. “But, we’ll um… See what I’m best at.”

“Good.” She turned to her computer. “I need to input you into our system. I’ll need to ask you some questions, and get scans of your retinas, fingerprints, and blood for identification purposes, as well as conduct a full physical scan.”

“Oh boy. Alright.” Dib turned to look at the screen too, and they went through a list of questions. She wrote down his name, species, planet of origin, its coordinates, his height and weight, and all sorts of information. She was able to take the scans she needed right at her desk. Even for blood. Turned out, they had some sort of vacuum technology that pulled out microscopic amounts of blood from between skin cells with no pain. And only one drop was needed.

Once all that was done, she put together a schedule for him. She printed it out and went over it with him. “After this, I want you to go to classroom 1 for newcomer's orientation. They'll brief you on our mission goals and expectations, as well as give you a run down of this same schedule. You're lucky, you arrived just in time for a new class to go through. We begin a new training regiment every month or so. If you arrive in between them, you have to do details until the next one begins. They'll also carry out a physical fitness exam later today to see where you're at. I don't know how well you'll be able to keep up with some of the others, but a trainer will design a plan for you if necessary. After that, you'll shower and go to lunch, then head back to classroom 1 and get started with basic lessons. Stuff like how to survive in the field, how to address superior ranking members, radio communication protocol, and history on the irkens and how they conduct their operations. It'll be an info dump but I'm sure you can keep up. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Everyone wears the same translator you do, they can understand whatever you say.”

“Okay. Sounds good, I'll head over there right now.” Dib stood. She handed him the schedule and turned back to her computer, and he walked away. A few seconds later, he went back to ask for directions. She gave him a map and told him to study it closely. He nodded and left again.

It still took a few minutes to figure out where to go, and when he walked into the right room, the orientation had already begun. Everyone turned to look at him, and the instructor raised a brow. “Are you here for the orientation, trainee?”

“Yeah,” he replied nervously.

“Then hurry up and sit down. Guess I have to start over now.” The instructor clicked back a few slides, and said, “I'm Sgt. Gerkin, and you have all agreed to join the Liberation Alliance. Our band of freedom fighters has been many years in the making, and very soon we will be taking our fight to the irkens that have enslaved countless worlds and hurt our people.”

There were agitated whispers. Gerkin waited for them to settle down, and continued, “But until then, you will need you train relentlessly. You need to be strong, you need to be quick, and you need to be smart. You will need to use your talents to the fullest if we want to make even a dent in the irken defenses. Our troops currently struggle just to disrupt day to day operations, but as our numbers grow, we will be able to damage them more. So I expect all of you to do your part to bring them down. Some of you may die. But we all must make sacrifices for the greater good. Now, let's get down to the basis of what we do!”

He began going through slides of information, and Dib was relieved that there was a notebook at his table to write in. He hurriedly copied down information. Everything was written in a language he couldn't read, so all he could do was listen and hope he was spelling names and locations correctly. The sergeant was a Meekrob, a being that appeared to consist of pure energy and hovered a few feet above the ground, glowing softly. Dib has only really seen them in pictures (and one hallucination caused by Zim but that was a long story) but had thought of them as serene and wise. The sergeant, however, looked quite hardened and fierce, speaking with a gruff tone. The words on the screen were neither irken nor Slirfese, and Dib assumed they were either in Meekrob or another common galactic language. He decided to copy down a few letters to ask Zim about later.

It took a couple hours to go through everything. They were even given a quick overview on the planets that Irk has conquered, though apparently they were going to have a different class to actually go into detail on the subject so they could learn of the advantages and disadvantages each location had. They learned about the Alliance's current capabilities and how fast it was expanding. Their allies were listed out for them, though they were also warned about potential enemies other than the irkens. Every so often, the irken race encountered a species that simply could not be conquered. In that event, a treaty was formed and the two agreed to assist each other in times of need. So they may have to watch out for such races as the Planet Jackers, who supplied the irkens with powerful transportation technology; the Blob species, who contributed valuable bioscanners and other identification devices; and many more militant races.

But Gerkin suggested these races were only aligned with Irk to protect themselves, and if a powerful force rises up against Irk, they may just switch sides. He reminded them that the Meekrob were very powerful, and had even fought off their own Invader and declared open war on the Empire. The rebellion had their support.

“My people are still to this day fighting the good fight, but the war there has come to a practical standstill. Irkens surround my planet but cannot get any closer without being blown out of the sky. Meanwhile, my own people cannot leave without also being shot down. They need us to come in and save them. And many other planets do as well,” Gerkin said, gesturing to a photo on screen of an irken fighter squadron posted around the planet. “But you'll learn all about my planet in your Irken Conquests class.” He looked at his watch. “Look at the time! You all need to be getting to your fitness evaluation. All of your rooms should have already been supplied with the necessary gear while you've been here. Welcome aboard, and I expect great things from all of you. Go on!”

They were released. Dib could tell everyone else was moving with a sense of urgency, so he did too, hurrying back to his room. He found that someone had come in and given him more clothing, made of something like spandex that stretched out when he tugged on it. It seemed to be exactly the right size, and figured it was due to Veldrin's scan of him that they were able to get it. He changed into the work out clothes. Both the shirt and leggings were solid black, with a silver symbol vaguely resembling a bat on the right side of the chest. He pulled on socks and shoes and headed back out, following the others to a large field surrounded by a track. He tapped on the material as he walked over it. It seemed similar to what his school had. Kinda rubbery but with a texture like asphalt. He went to where everyone was forming up.

A big alien, a Gnarlbusher Dib knew now, took a place at the front of the formation and barked at them to be quiet and find a clear spot so they could warm up. Leaving a few feet of space between him and the others, Dib followed along as they went through the exercises. Some of them, he wasn't quite flexible enough to do. Or didn't have the right limbs for. But he did his best to follow along, wondering what the fitness evaluation would consist of. Surely their different physical abilities would be taken into account, right? They weren't going to expect him to run as fast as that alien with four legs over there, or lift as much or do as many push-ups as the heavily muscled one to his right... but that remained to be seen. He was just going to do the best he could.

Once they were done warming up, they were given a few minutes to do their own routines, and more people came out, carrying tablets and dressed in similar clothing to his own.

“Alright trainees, listen up for your names and go to the sergeant who calls for you,” the Gnarlbusher announced. “Your fitness requirements have been determined based on your biology and whatever information we could obtain about your species from your home planet. Each of you will perform an evaluation tailored to your abilities. However, you may still fail. In that event, you will be expected to work hard until you can pass an evaluation.”

Dib waited as the sergeants went through their lists, and everyone was sorted into groups. The largest group by far consisted of bipedals with similar body types to his own, though there were other groups for very large aliens, or small ones, or those with a different number of limbs.

He was finally called into a group with several Vortians, which he greeted. Many of them were able to escape their planet, he has learned already. There were apparently all sorts of ways they could hide and slip past irken surveillance, especially since their planet wasn't very heavily guarded. Many irkens still remembered when they were friends with the Vortians, and it was strange enforcing total rule over them. So they just let things slide. Along with the Vortians, there were some short but tough creatures known as Screwheads, which Dib was definitely going to keep away from. There were other scattered species he didn't know the names of yet. And then there were Slirfs, which made up a good portion of the rebel force. He saw that the very few Meekrob trainees had their own group, as did certain others that were anatomically unique.

Dib turned his attention toward the sergeant overseeing their group.

“Okay,” she said, consulting her tablet. “Let's take a few steps over this way, shall we?” She led them away from the others so they could hear her better. “I've devised a very simple but informative evaluation for you all. I borrowed some ideas from old Vortian military tests, and even managed to do research into your planet, human Dib.” He was surprised, and she nodded to him. “Even before you came here, we knew about Earth. We knew about it from the moment the Tallest decided to send an Invader there, though our concerns were alleviated when we found out it was merely a banishment. Still, we did gather intel on Earth in case we ever had a human here. And your military is very extensive and varied. But I've picked out some things I like the sound of.”

“We're ready when you are, ma'am,” a Vortian said eagerly.

“You better be. My name's Rel, by the way. You ever need any fitness tips after this, come to me and I'll be happy to take you to the gym for a session.” She began reading from the tablet. “I'm not going to worry about where you are in terms of weight or anything... If you're in shape, and you can prove it, your weight doesn't matter. But I need to test your cardio. You need to prove to me that you can run long distances without wearing out. You will run two miles, and I expect you all to finish it in eighteen minutes or less.”

There was some exchanging of glances, but no one complained. She kept going. “But before that will be strength tests. You will perform push-ups. I assume you're all familiar with the concept?”

They nodded. Nearly every species with two arms came up with it.

“Good. At least thirty of those in a minute. And then sit-ups to further test your strength in other muscle groups. I'm thinking... forty. Should be nice and obtainable, right? Of course, I fully encourage you to go beyond that.” She paced, looking them all over. “Although, if you haven't done any sort of training before this, I think you'll be hard-pressed to do all this. But we'll see what happens, won't we? Now divide into pairs, half of you will do push-ups, and the other half will count. Then you will report the numbers back to me. And no cheating! If your partner doesn't do it properly, don't count it! Correct them if they're wrong! And don't lie to me about their score, it will only come back to bite you in the ass!” She straightened up, clearing her throat. “Now get to it.”

They hurried to divide themselves up, and across the field, the others were organizing for their own tests. Dib grumbled to himself as he and a Slirf exchanged introductions and agreed to count each other's push-ups. He had a feeling this was going to be a lot more brutal than P.E.


	10. The Call

Zim was restless. The healthcare in this hospital was excellent and he was already feeling even better than he was when he talked to Dib earlier. There was only so many times he could lay there and count the ceiling tiles, or analyze every number and image on the monitors near his bed, before getting bored. There was a TV in here, playing some nature documentary for a planet he presumed was the Slirf homeworld. But he was having a hard time understanding the language now. He assumed it was because his PAK was gone. A lot of his thoughts were hazy and his memories were unclear. He hoped he recovered, but for now he just focused on the present. He was betraying his entire race.

No, he told himself. He was betraying his Tallest in particular. He was doing his race a favor. But then again... was he? Maybe the irken way of life was wrong, but it was all they knew. Would they be able to change? Or would he die trying to get them to?

He sat up and gazed at the window. He was too high up to really see what was happening on the ground. All he could see was a pale blue sky. He glanced around his room, sighed, and threw the covers back, getting up. His legs were sore, and he idly reached over to tap a button on a nearby screen, giving himself another dose of painkiller. Hopefully no one was monitoring that. He grasped the piece of equipment, which was thankfully one unit on wheels that he could pull along with him as he walked over to the window. Looking down, he saw that he had a view of the exercise pad. The track surrounding it was easily a mile in circumference. There were a lot of people out there, and he watched curiously as they formed into groups and began working out. It seemed like a couple dozen of them were being evaluated on their fitness, while the rest were just doing standard exercise.

Zim chuckled lowly, familiar with this from his years of military training. He was quite proud of his fitness, he was agile and strong, but there were always those who took it way too seriously, and those who did just the bare minimum. He had found a comfortable medium. He has fallen behind in recent years though. Oh well, at least his cardio was excellent after chasing Dib around so much.

He located Dib, who was down on the ground doing push-ups. He seemed to be struggling, and Zim smiled, opening the window and crossing his arms on the sill. It felt nice out, and he preferred the breeze to that stale hospital air. He watched Dib go through the push-ups, and wondered if the lighter gravity was helping him. It wasn't a significant difference from Earth, this was quite a large moon, but Zim had noticed the difference nonetheless.

He kinda wished he was down there working out too. He wanted to encourage Dib. He wanted to race against him. He wanted to get to know the people he would soon be working with. It was strange. He's never really felt concern for others before, but now he wanted to know all about them. What were their cultures like? Who was waiting for them back home? How has the irken rule influenced their lives? What role would they play in the coming battles? He was almost eager to start working with them.

Zim reached behind his back, hesitated, and carefully rubbed over his bandages. The PAK ports stung, but the irritation melted into relief after a few moments. It all came back to his PAK. For so long it had influenced his thoughts and emotions, and now it wasn't there. In a way, he felt lost without it. He was unsure without its steady voice guiding him, not so much with words, but with power and determination. But he was better off without it. He just needed to adjust.

Down below, Dib was getting up. It was hard to see from here, but he looked kinda disappointed. One of the other aliens slapped his shoulder, and he shrugged, and got down on a knee as they prepared to do their own round of push-ups while he counted. Once that was done, they proceeded to do sit-ups. Zim looked around, watching other groups too a bit. Some had to do flying challenges, but most were following similar routines.

Eventually they moved along to do a run, and Zim watched the whole time. Some creatures were unbelievably fast, and others were rather slow. Dib had a good pace, though he began to slow at around the one mile mark, as he had started off too quickly in the beginning due to trying to keep up with the other runners. Zim's made that mistake plenty of times before. Not that he considered it a mistake at the time. Obviously he was very well motivated.

Zim wanted to watch until Dib finished, but as he was halfway through his second lap, the door opened and a nurse came in.

“Sir, you shouldn't be out of bed so soon,” she said.

“I'm fine, irkens heal fast,” he replied.

“Well... they do with PAKs,” she pointed out. “You no longer have one so you won't heal near as fast. Please, you should lay back down.”

Zim sighed. Even with the extra painkiller, he was sore. And it was making him lightheaded now. He gave in, straightening up and returning to the bed, pushing the machine back into place. He laid down and rolled onto his side, curling up a bit.

“I know it's not easy being in here, but once you've healed from your surgery you'll be able to join them out there. Let me know if you need anything.” She checked one of the screens, and headed out.

Zim laid there for a while, watching the door. GIR wasn't in the room. After waking up, he had gone off to visit the cafeteria. Zim hoped he wasn't giving the staff too much trouble. Zim also wanted him to come back so he could ask him to get his laptop for him. Usually he would be able to ask him at any time, but he didn't have his communicator anymore.

Luckily, it was only about five minutes until GIR entered the room, singing as he shoveled pudding into his mouth.

“How was breakfast?” Zim asked.

“Great!” GIR replied. Not surprising. Zim has yet to find a food GIR didn't like. GIR hopped up onto the bed next to him, opening the panels on top of his head. “I snuck you some food too!” He took out a sandwich and handed it to him.

Zim gratefully accepted it. His breakfast earlier had been pretty good, but he still felt like he was starving. He got started on the sandwich, and asked GIR to bring him his computer.

GIR saluted and ran out. Zim mulled over what he was about to do, watching the ceiling and trying not to let the trepidation seep in. Even without his PAK, the idea of it seemed so wrong... it went against everything he was taught. But he felt like he needed this closure.

By the time GIR returned, Zim was finished with his food. He thanked him and took the computer, and GIR climbed up onto the foot of the bed to watch TV. Zim turned it on and spent a few minutes encrypting its location, using a proxy that he had set up on Pluto ages ago. When he sent out this transmission, any investigation would show the signal coming from that planet, instead of where he was now. Just in case.

He took a breath, and glanced over to see that his heart rate was rising. He swallowed and looked forward, keying in a familiar command, and waiting.

After several moments, the window showed Tallest Red and Purple.

“Greetings,” he said, watching them closely. Have they always been so bored to see him? Purple was hardly even looking at him, more concerned with examining his claws. Red was more attentive, though.

“We were wondering when you'd call us,” Red said. “What's the status on retrieving your SIR unit?”

“I've got him,” Zim replied, turning the laptop around. “Say hi, GIR.”

GIR waved at the screen. “Hi, Tallests!”

Zim turned the laptop back to face himself. “He's fine.”

“So he is, but what happened to you?” Red asked. He looked Zim over, and craned his head, trying to take in his surroundings. “Are you in a hospital?”

“Yes, but only temporarily. I'm recovering from surgery. It's quite a long story. So yeah, I don't want to bore you, but I got GIR back. That's the important part.”

The Tallest sighed, and Red nodded. “Well, alright. Make sure you don't let this happen again, we don't need his data getting into the wrong hands. Now if that's all, then...”

“Also, I'm giving up my mission,” Zim continued.

They stared at him, mouths gaping open. Purple replied first. “You're... what?” he asked incredulously.

“I mean, it's fake, right? You never actually intended for me to conquer Earth, you don't even want it. You think it isn't valuable.”

They exchanged glances, and Red replied, “That's not true, Earth is... um, Earth is useful, we'd use it for um...” He gestured to Purple.

“Uhh, zoo planet?” Purple blurted. “Y-yeah, uh, we'd keep its animals alive and let other aliens visit it as a zoo!”

Zim raised a brow. “You already have a zoo planet.”

“Well, uh...”

“Admit it. You sent me to Earth hoping I'd die on the trip. That I wouldn't find anything and be lost in space. And now that I did find something, you don't even want it. You just wanted me to stay on Earth, which is farther away from Irk than any other planet you've discovered. Because you hate me.”

The Tallest were silent for a few moments. Then Red spoke up. “I didn't think you would ever figure it out. Well, we aren't going to lie to you. You were banished. You were banished to Foodcourtia the first time, and just decided somehow to quit. You begged us to be an Invader. So yeah, we gave you a crappy planet that we don't care about and didn't think even existed. If you had died, it would have been no loss to us. But since you did make it to Earth, that might as well be your new banishment. And now, I am officially ordering you to stay there.”

Zim's antennae flattened. “I trusted you. I respected you and loved you as all irkens were supposed to, and you lied to me. You're both disgusting and I'm glad I'm far away from you.”

“Good, no one wants you,” Purple snarled.

“I doubt anyone wants you either.” Zim's fingers clenched on the sides of his laptop, and he took a few calming breaths. But anger was making his pulse race, and he had to fight to keep from yelling. “I can't believe I was so naive. You're awful and if irkens had a choice, no one would want you as their leaders.”

“Then it's a good thing you don't have a choice,” Red said bluntly.

Zim smiled. “I wouldn't be so sure about that. See, GIR wasn't just taken by random aliens. Turns out, it was a very deliberate botnapping on the part of a rebel group who plans to take down the Irken Empire and free all the planets under your control. And I joined them.”

“You what?!” they exclaimed simultaneously.

Growing cocky, Zim turned to show them his back. “They took me in, their leader convinced me to do what was right, and they removed my PAK. Now I can finally think clearly, and I know...” He faced them again, “I know you need to be removed from power. The irken domination of planets must stop. We're better than that. We can be better. And that's what I'm fighting for.”

“This is ridiculous, you can't fight back against the Irken Empire!” Purple shouted. “You're going to die!”

“I feel like my chances are pretty good. After all... I was forced to be a soldier. So I have all my military training. I know the ins and outs of our military, exactly what irkens are capable of, and what our weaknesses are. And I will pass that information along to the rest of my group.” Zim's anger faded into smugness at the outraged looks the other two gave him.

“You're making the worst mistake of your life,” Red growled furiously. “You're a traitorous piece of shit and when we see you, we will kill you.”

Zim chuckled. “Well Red, maybe you guys should have actually respected me, and the seeds of doubt that lead me to defect would never have been planted. Oh well. Ex-Invader Zim, signing off.” He hit the button. The window closed, cutting off Red and Purple's shouts. Zim sat there for a moment, then slumped back, suddenly feeling sick. His vision blurred, and he put the laptop aside, groaning. “I can't believe I just did that.”

“You sure told them!” GIR cheered.

Zim winced. “I just told the Tallest that I quit and joined a rebellion. I just insulted them in front of their whole crew. They are going to kill me.”

“They can't kill what they can't find.”

Zim pulled the blanket up further around him. “I hope they can't find me. But even if they don't, I'm going to have to confront them in person eventually. If this fight ever makes it to Irk... I'm going to run into them. What will I even say? Will I say anything? Or will it just...” He trailed off as he imagined the bloodshed. Any meeting with the Tallest won't be pretty. He was sure of that. But he would just have to train and make sure he was ready for that day.

“You'll win,” GIR said confidently. “You're great!”

Zim smiled, and gently patted his head. “I'm glad you think so. Funny that you believe in me more than the Tallest ever did, huh?”

GIR snuggled up to him. Zim idly flipped open the plates on his head, which gave access to his motherboard. After a few moments examining the hardware, Zim hummed and snapped the plates back into place.

“As soon as I get out of here, I'm gonna remove your free will inhibitor. Though if I'm honest, you probably barely have one of those, huh?” Zim affectionately rubbed his back, curling up with him. Despite being made of metal, GIR was always pleasantly warm. It wasn't even noon, but with nothing better to do, Zim decided to just take a nap. His argument with the Tallest had left him exhausted.

With his trusted robot at his side, he drifted off to sleep.


	11. Irken History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, haven't felt up to writing this lately. But I'll try to update in less than a month next time. Enjoy.

When Dib finished his run, he immediately got off the track and collapsed onto his butt, gasping for breath and clutching his chest. He wasn't sure if his time was good, and he didn't glance at the person timing him to check. He was just focused on recovering.

“Hey, you shouldn't just sit around after that,” someone said, leaning down and patting his elbow. “Come on, get up.”

He groaned, but allowed them to pull him onto his feet.

“Raise your arms over your head. Take deep breaths, and walk around. It'll make you feel better, trust me.”

Dib nodded and silently did so, watching as others finished their runs. At least he wasn't last. But he wasn't the best either. But that was fine. He would have time to improve. He accepted a bottle of water from someone and took a swig, his breathing slowly returning to normal.

Once everyone was done, the sergeant, Rel, consulted the results her assistants brought her. After a few moments, she finally said, “I suppose you weren't terrible. But we can do better, recruits. We can do much better.” She began criticizing the various trainees, telling them where they were weak and how to improve, and complimenting their strengths. When she got to Dib, she said, “I wasn't sure what to expect with you. You're the first human we've ever had here. But you did decent. Your species has impressive endurance and I can see you being a powerful runner. But you need to work on your form. Run with your shoulders back. Don't slouch forward. Keep your head up, and control your breathing. Do sprints, they'll make you faster. And long runs will increase your endurance. As for strength, I can't really say much more than just... exercise. Keep doing push-ups. Lift weights. You'll get stronger.” She moved on.

He sighed and rubbed his back, stretching until a few bones popped. Then he waited as everyone in his group was addressed. Then they joined back in with the others, and were led through a cool-down routine. This only took about ten minutes, and then they were dismissed to go shower and eat lunch. The new recruits were told to be back in Classroom 1 by noon.

Dib limped a bit on his way back to the barracks. He had pulled a muscle during the last stretch of the run. He wondered how Zim was doing, cooped up in the hospital. He had to be pretty bored right now. But he probably had a lot on his mind. The solitude would do him well. Besides, he had GIR.

Once back in his room, he gathered up his toiletries and checked out the bathroom. It was similar enough to one on Earth, he supposed. He was able to recognize the toilet, oddly shaped though it may be. There was a counter, which he arranged his stuff on, and a sink, and cabinets. A few plain brown towels already hung on a towel rack. And then there was the bathtub/shower combination. He examined the knobs. There were four of them, the labels consisting of single letters. However, said letters were in an alien language, so he couldn't understand them.

Finally he just decided to test them. He turned on one and waited. Water poured out of the faucet. Holding his hand under it, he determined that was for cold water. He turned it down and switched to the one directly under it. After a few moments, the water grew warm. Okay, that was pretty straightforward. He adjusted it to a temperature he liked, and then turned the top right knob. With a gurgle, the water stopped coming out of the faucet and instead sprayed from the showerhead. Which just left the fourth knob on the lower right.

Dib twisted it. The spray increased in intensity, pattering more loudly against the bottom of the tub. Okay, that was kinda cool. He definitely would have appreciated a setting like that back home.

When he got the water to his liking, he pulled off his sweaty clothes and hopped in. Too late he realized there wasn't any soap in here. They probably figured he would buy his own. He hadn't brought any from home, not expecting this to be a long trip. He had to settle for just rinsing off, making a mental note to find a store and buy supplies. Though... he didn't have money. He definitely needed to talk to Veldrin about that.

Once cleaned off, he got out and dried off, watching himself in the mirror. “You're really doing this, huh?” he asked himself. He slid his glasses on and sighed. “You're gonna fight the irkens. But this time, it's actually going to make a difference. I hope.” He applied deodorant and brushed his hair, then returned to the main room, getting dressed.

He fiddled with the translator in his ear. It hadn't been affected by the water at all. And it was fairly small, so he'd be able to get a cotton swab past it to clean his ear. But he couldn't help but wonder if he could remove it. For now though, he elected not to and simply went to lunch, bringing his notebook with him.

He didn't really talk to anyone, just nodding at other new recruits, lost in his thoughts. He gathered up the most pleasant looking food he saw and took a seat. As he ate, he watched his surroundings. The people here seemed well taken care of. They were fairly relaxed, chatting and smiling, eating without any real urgency. Their confidence made him feel better about joining the rebellion.

He was just about done when someone slapped his back. “How was the exercise?”

Dib jumped, but recognized Veldrin's voice. He turned to greet her. “Oh, you know. Exhausting.”

“I bet. It isn't easy, especially when you're not used to it. But you will get used to it.” She rummaged in one of her cargo pockets and took out a small box. “Here. Since time on your planet is a lot different from here, I got you a watch. It'll adjust itself to the time of any planet we know of. I don't want you being late to your classes.”

“Oh, thank you.” He accepted it and took the watch out. It was silvery and displayed the time in a format kinda like a digital watch on Earth would. The date was pretty unrecognizable though. He put it on.

“By the time you get back to your room tonight, there'll be reading material for you,” she said. “Small things to help you acclimate to the base. How to read the time, the date, what sort of customs our hosts have, even places of interest in the local area. Just to help you feel comfortable.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

She nodded. “Need anything else from me?”

“Well, I was wondering. My money from Earth is pretty useless here. Is there a way to make money that... you know, I can actually spend? I need some stuff.”

Veldrin considered, then said, “You and the other new recruits will meet with the finance office soon to work on that. You do get an allowance of around a thousand credits a month, which can be spent nearly anywhere on this moon. They are also accepted at several galactic locations. But you can likely obtain most necessities here. There is a supplier that can give you complimentary soaps, other hygiene products, cleaning supplies for your room, food, batteries, stationary, clothing, all sorts of things. I think they even offer games and movies. You can ask around, someone will help you find it.”

“Okay, sounds good.” Dib checked his watch. “So my class starts at noon? Is that represented by these symbols?”

“Ah, I tried to translate this into English for you, I guess it didn't quite work...” She extracted a notebook from another pocket and flipped to a blank page, writing in it. “Here. Each of these symbols equal these numbers. Days here consist of thirty hours, each hour is fifty minutes. And a minute is a hundred seconds. Pretty easy to keep track of, right? And a second is about the same as yours on Earth. Like this.” She tapped them out. “An easy way to remember them is by just saying one second one, one second two, and so on. In the time it takes to say that, one passes. Anyway.” She tore the page out and handed it to him. “Our noon is at 1500. 2900 is like... the last hour to the day. Then it rolls back over to zero hundred of the next day.” She indicated the four zeroes. “Pretty simple, right?”

“Yeah, I get it. Thanks.”

Veldrin looked at her own watch. “Currently it's 1440. So if I was you I'd finish eating and get going. You have a lot to learn.”

“Of course. Uh, yes ma'am.” He got up.

She chuckled. “Relax a little, kid. We may model ourselves after the military but we aren't that hardcore. Honestly, the only time you really need to bust out the ma'ams and sirs is when you're standing at attention in front of an officer because you're getting your ass chewed. But you have to really screw up for that. I'll see you around. Need to finish checking in with the other new recruits.” She walked away, and he called a goodbye after her. Then he shoved the cheat sheet she gave him into his pocket, put his tray away, and headed for the classroom.

It was relatively full already, and he just took a seat in the middle and waited patiently, as the instructor, the same Meekrob from before, organized notes. Judging from the slideshow on the screen behind him, they would be going over the history of the Irken Empire. This will be interesting.

When the class started, Sgt. Gerkin got everyone's attention by using his telekinesis to immediately slam the door. Several people jumped, and there was actually a smack as someone outside ran into the door.

“Um, sir?” someone called nervously. “I think there's still some people coming in...”

“They should have been here a minute earlier,” Sgt. Gerkin replied. But he lowered his hand, and the door was slowly opened, a couple aliens glancing in nervously. He stared at them. “Well, come on! Get in here, stop wasting my time!”

They hurried in. He waited, then closed the door again. “Now then. You're all here for one very specific purpose, are you not?”

There was some indistinct mumbling and head nods.

Dissatisfied, Gerkin said more loudly, “And what is that purpose?” He looked around the room, then pointed at a random trainee. “You, Trainee Meeeh. What are we here for?”

The trainee clearly wasn't expecting to get called on, but they said, “Uh, well... to fight irkens?”

“To fight irkens, Trainee Meeeh? What about our commander, Veldrin? Are you here to fight her? I'd like to see you try.”

They quickly corrected themselves. “Ah, no, of course not! I mean... we're here to stop irkens from conquering planets. The Invaders need to be stopped and the planets freed.”

“That's better.” Gerkin addressed the rest of the class. “Yes, we are united under a common goal. Liberation. Not just of a few planets, but many. Hundreds. Across multiple galaxies. So far the Andromeda has been safe from irken reign, and that is why we established our base here. But how long will it be safe? How long until the irken menace sends its troops to attack the innocent people of this galaxy? We can not allow that to happen. We must push back, send the message that we are not submissive. But you're probably all wondering: How will we stop the irkens? They're so powerful. They've already conquered so much, surely all hope is lost, right? Well if you're thinking that, stop it. We will never give up hope. The irkens have weaknesses, and we will defeat them. But to fight an irken, you need to understand the irkens. And that's why I'm going to give you a crash course on their history, their motives, their values. And from this understanding, you will learn how to beat them. They really aren't as perfect and infallible as they'll lead you to believe.” Gerkin clicked to the next slide, showing a picture of an irken, but different from any Dib has seen. It was somewhat crouched, teeth showing as it snarled, antennae pulled sharply back. It seemed bonier, leaner. It held a spear in its hands. “Right from the beginning, irkens were conquerors. They evolved that way, stealing from other tribes, fighting with them, never settling things peacefully. Even within their own family groups, tensions were high, and disagreements could lead to bloody battles. If the loser wasn't killed, they were often thrown out and left to fend for themselves. And Irk was home to large, vicious predators that enjoyed eating the small, sweet-tasting irkens.”

A few people cleared their throats uncomfortably. There were a couple unsure laughs.

Gerkin just gave them a serious look. “Despite their sharp teeth and claws, irkens have always been herbivores. They raised hardy, sweet plants and berries, and discovered many applications of sugar. One of their few good contributions to the universe. But due to their diet, coupled with their small size, they were a favorite target of Irk's predators. Only the strongest, smartest irkens survived. It turned them into a race of warriors. When they gained the intelligence to find common ground with their fellow irkens, sharing resources instead of fighting, they banded together against the predators. Taller irkens began to take leadership positions more and more often. Tall irkens were older and stronger. They have proved their strength.” He showed them a picture of a tall irken, wearing a garment Dib thought looked somewhat like modern Tallest armor, waving to a crowd. “Irkens never really lost their aggression, even as they marched toward civilization. They always had to be the best. This city just had to be better than that other city. If you worked in one job, you had to be part of the best company. And you had to be better than the people you worked with. Everywhere, there was competition. Irkens were cooperating, but just barely. They fought. They waged war. Their greatest scientific advancements were driven by this need to be superior.

“And then they discovered how to augment themselves with technology. The first prototype PAKs were made and tested, to great effect. Irkens used them to help kickstart their exploration of space. They began stealing from other races. And then their artificial intelligence developed to the point that it was used for decision making. Robots offered completely unbiased opinions. And one clever politician decided to try putting them in charge. Thus came the Control Brains.”

Dib has never gotten to learn so much about irkens at once. Zim usually kept knowledge of his race as secret as possible. Dib has gathered some information on his own, was familiar with the Control Brains and how they were really in charge, with the Tallest being responsible for implementing their commands and keeping the public happy. But he never got to learn much about their history, or their society in general. Just what Zim liked to brag about. Such as how ferocious and perfect irkens are. So he was very interested in this lesson.

Sgt. Gerkin took up a good hour teaching them about the implementation of the Control Brains, how their intelligence lead to them manipulating more and more irkens over to their favor, and finally they became the ultimate rulers of the species and it was no longer questioned. PAKs were refined and became mandatory. Through them, loyalty was enforced. All irkens would be dedicated to their Tallest. They would perform their given jobs with pride and their planet would reign supreme over all others.

“But obviously, the programming isn't entirely flawless,” Gerkin said. “We all know of Commander Veldrin, who was able to rationalize and realized how unjust the Irken Empire was. She made the choice to leave, despite a huge part of her screaming at her to stay. She still had a choice. No matter how powerful a computer is, it is still just a computer, and cannot override personal thought and emotions. Many irkens fail to realize they can make their own choices. But some do. The majority of those who realize it die for their rebellion. The others choose to keep quiet and continue doing as they're told, and resist only in their minds, dreaming of a day when someone comes who is strong enough to make a difference. And a very small number of those are brave enough to escape their planet and live their own life. Veldrin was one. And there are a few others in history, despised by their species, but regarded fondly enough by other species. There was the great mathematician known only as Expy who helped other races to reach the stars. Bruttis actually provided the Planet Jackers with the technology that allowed them to resist Irk's rule, forcing Irk to make a rare treaty with them instead. And there are a few more examples.” Gerkin was showing them pictures on slides, and then paused on a picture of a very familiar irken, being flanked by large armed guards and still grinning at the camera. “In a stranger one, there's Invader Zim. Loyal to his Tallest as expected, yet he has shown a remarkable amount of free will throughout his military career. He regularly disobeyed superiors, believing he knew better. He carried out assignments his way instead of following instructions. He was even banished and decided to quit, going right back to his leaders and asking for an assignment. I could honestly call him the epitome of 'refuge in audacity'.”

Dib couldn't help but snort with amusement and nod.

Gerkin clicked past that slide. “Of course that could be chalked up to Zim having a defective PAK. Its connection to him was corrupted. It never quite had the full control it should have. So while he could certainly access the parts of it that compelled him to be loyal, it couldn't actually force him to be. A very interesting case for sure. And in the end he was able to be convinced of the horrors of irken rule, and he turned on his own people. He joined us, and had his PAK removed. So I think we can expect great things from him, now that he's on our side.”

There was some muttering, and an audible statement of, “Let's hope he doesn't blow us up like he did that military station on his home planet.”

Gerkin finally let out a chuckle. “Let's hope, huh? Anyway, I know some of you are drifting off, I hate teaching after lunch, but if you take anything away from this lesson, let it be this. Irkens were designed by nature to be brutal and efficient. Their PAKs further encourage this behavior. We can't necessarily win by pure strength. We have to outwit them, and demolish their entire political system. Only then can the population really begin to change for the better. It's not going to be easy, but we can do it. We must do it. For the sake of the universe.” The slideshow ended, and he floated away from his podium. “That concludes basic irken history. After the break we'll be moving on to their military capabilities. Please take ten minutes to stretch and go to the restroom if needed.” He turned off the projector and went to sit at the computer.

Several trainees got up to stretch as suggested, and they discussed what they had just gone over. Dib kept to himself, reviewing his notes. He had to admit, he felt pretty bad for the irkens. But they had to be stopped, and that was what he was here to do.


	12. Phoning Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it did end up taking me around a month again to update. I'm sorry again, guys. I just get so distracted. Anyway, hope you enjoy and thanks so much for all the reviews so far. :D

The day passed quickly enough. Dib learned a lot and wrote down as many notes as he could, knowing he wouldn't remember all this. At least not without some thorough study. Luckily, all the trainees received a study guide for everything they would be learning during their training. Said study guide was thicker than many of the books he read, and while they were being passed out to the various recruits, the instructor paused at Dib, before scowling and saying he had to go pick his up from the printer, as one had to be made for him last minute. His language was still very unfamiliar to everyone.

Fortunately, once he received his book later that day, he found that everything had been translated very well. Impressive. English wasn't exactly simple. He flipped to the inside cover and found a written note from Veldrin.

_Let me know if I made any mistakes. I made this as fast as I could. I had some software to help me but everything was read over at least once._

“Damn,” Dib said out loud. Was there anything she couldn't do?

He spent some time eating dinner, reading the study guide. He made some notes about today's lesson, and then got up, putting his tray away and going back to his room. He spent the rest of the evening reading, and then consulted his schedule before setting the alarm on his watch for tomorrow morning. The day was going to be starting with exercise before dawn and he didn't want to miss it. He wasn't a fan of working out but he didn't want to make a bad impression by being late.

Once the time was set, he changed into pajamas and climbed into bed, falling asleep in minutes.

The next few days followed a straightforward schedule. He exercised, he learned about irkens and how the rebellion was planning on fighting them, and was introduced to military structure and discipline. It wasn't as bad as he was expecting; Earth forces were treated much more brutally if the movies were anything to go by. Still, the instructors had very high expectations and weren't afraid to call out recruits who acted up, sometimes even making them get down and do exercise while the others waited for them to finish.

Dib was treated to a particularly good quote one day when they were outside starting to learn how to use their weapons, an interesting sort of gun that fired a quick but deadly laser burst. Before being allowed to actually fire them, they were required to know the ins and outs of the gun. What every part did, how to take it apart, how to clean it and fix minor problems, and how to put it back together. The majority of the class was struggling with a component that their instructor, a rather gelatinous alien named Xax, was able to insert with seemingly no difficulty. Frustrated, Xax proceeded to explain in a very condescending way how to do it, and when they saw how demoralized the trainees looked in response, they sighed and said, “Look, I know what you're thinking. I'm not treating you this way because you're stupid. I'm treating you like this because you're doing stupid things. Now just... finish putting in the shield so we can continue.”

After a few more minutes, everyone had the part in. Then they continued the lesson.

A week after arriving, Dib went to visit Zim at the hospital again. He was recovering well, but there was a minor issue with his spine and they wanted to monitor it for just a few more days. It was obvious that the irken was rearing to get going though.

“I know, it's gotta be boring in here,” Dib said, leaning against the rail of Zim's bed.

“Yeah, you're telling me!” Zim was sitting up, looking incredibly bored as he flipped through a magazine. “They let me walk around the hospital if I want, but everyone stares at me and I don't like it. So I just come back in here after like ten minutes.”

“I'm sure they're just looking at you because they want to make sure you're okay.”

“Doubt it. They probably hate irkens. I wouldn't blame them.”

Dib sighed. But he didn't try to argue the point. “Other than being bored, are you doing okay?”

“Oh yeah, totally. I feel a lot better now, actually. I don't get angry over stupid things anymore! And me and GIR have done a lot of bonding.”

Dib looked around. “Where is he?”

“Oh, he gets bored easily. He went out, guess he's gonna find a fast food restaurant or something. I told him to bring me back a cheese quesadilla. You know, if there's an equivalent. He'll probably bring me something gross but oh well.”

“Ah.” Dib rolled his shoulders and sighed, head tipping forward. Then he jerked back up straight.

Zim raised a brow. “You okay?”

“Yeah. I'm just... still adjusting to these longer days. And I'm pretty tired, we did this obstacle course thing...” He stood up straight, stepping back from the bed. “Also I get stomach aches a lot.”

“Not surprising. Your body isn't used to food grown a galaxy away from your own. But don't worry, you'll adjust. Probably. Has anything made you throw up?”

“Not yet.”

“Great! You'll probably be okay then. Personally I like the food here. Well, most of it.”

Dib idly rubbed his stomach. “I hope so. But other than being tired and getting stomach aches, I'm doing pretty well. I... do miss home, though.”

Zim lowered his magazine. “Oh, right. Did you ever say goodbye?”

“I... I didn't. I yelled goodbye to Gaz as I left, expecting a short trip. And now she might never know what happened to me. Oh god. What if she thinks I'm dead? What if Dad is freaking out trying to find me?” Dib grabbed his hair.

Zim's antennae perked. “Dib, it's okay, I'm sure they think you're fine. You can take care of yourself, and it's not like you haven't just randomly disappeared for several days before.”

“Yeah but this is different! I just... left! And if months pass without them hearing from me, they'll know I'm gone, and it'll be bad, they'll be so upset...”

Zim looked uncomfortable as Dib blinked, tears welling up in his eyes. Zim hastily got up, going over to get his laptop and sitting down in the chair with it.

Dib wiped his eyes off and looked at him. “What are you doing?”

“Something.” Zim began typing, and tapped the screen a few times, staring at it intently and muttering in irken. Dib's translator couldn't hear enough to translate it for him, so he just waited, trying not to cry, but now he was thinking of his sister and dad and feeling so homesick he wanted to sob. Earth had its problems but it was home, and he wanted to go back.

After a few minutes, Zim exclaimed, “Success!” and triumphantly turned the screen around to Dib. “Hit the green button and you can do the Face Time with your sister! Assuming I got her phone number correct.”

Dib stared, and walked closer, leaning down to see the program. Zim had clearly just put it together, but there was a black box and a phone icon, with Gaz's name and cell phone number at the top. He tapped the button.

It made a ringing sound, and after a few seconds, the box cleared and showed him Gaz. “Who are you-” She abruptly stopped, eyes widening. “Dib?”

“Gaz!” Dib grinned and wiped at his face again. “It's me!”

“Clearly. Where are you? Dad's been worried sick and he's tearing this city apart looking for you. You should have told me you were going to be gone for weeks!”

“Look, I'm sorry, it's just... me and Zim meant to just go get his robot back from botnappers, but then we found out there was this whole rebellion against the irkens, and we joined! That's where I've been, in the Andromeda galaxy, in this Liberation Alliance!”

Gaz stared at him, then coolly said, “And Zim's fine with that?”

“No, like I said, he joined too! Their commander is this other irken named Veldrin, she's really cool, and she was able to convince him that the Irken Empire needs to be stopped. He let them remove his PAK and now he's part of the resistance too, isn't that cool?”

Gaz sighed. Then she peered at Dib through narrowed eyes. “So how long are you going to be gone for?”

“I... I don't know. However long it takes to beat the irkens. But trust me, once the empire has fallen and all their enslaved planets are released, I'll come home. We have an enormous force, we'll probably be able to challenge them very soon. We just need Zim out of the hospital and able to help invent weapons, and we can get to it.”

“I want to see Zim.”

Dib nodded to Zim, who turned the screen back around to face himself. Dib went to kneel next to the chair so he could still see Gaz too. Zim gave a little wave. “Hi, Gaz.”

“Huh, so Dib isn't lying. You two are actually getting along?” she asked.

Zim smiled and reached over to hook an arm around Dib, pulling him closer. Unfortunately he chose to put it around his neck so he gagged slightly. “Yep! I mean once I abandoned my mission there was no reason for me to hate him anymore, right? Dib's actually pretty cool once you get to know him!”

“Yeah, that's questionable.”

“Gaz,” Dib said reproachfully.

“Look, I can't make you guys come back,” Gaz said firmly. “No way I'm getting all the way out to the Andromeda. But you better not die or I swear, as soon as I die too I'm haunting your ass for the rest of whatever afterlife exists.”

“Deal,” Dib said.

“I better let Dad know what you're doing. He's not going to believe me but maybe I can get him to stop looking. Or maybe I'll just lie and say you ran off to start a career in Europe. Anyway, good luck you two, kick some butt, and don't get killed. I'll miss your grating voices too much.”

Dib chuckled. “We'll be fine. See you soon, I hope.”

“See you soon. And hey, you just called me now, right? Do it again soon, you moron. Talk to you later.”

“Talk to you later.” Dib saw that there was a red button on the screen, and hit that. The image blacked out. After a moment, he said to Zim, “How exactly were we able to communicate in real time with me being millions of light years away?”

Zim gave him an unimpressed look as he started tweaking the software he had just designed. “Do you really want me to explain faster than light communications right now? That'll put you to sleep for sure. Besides, I doubt you'd understand.”

“Do you really think that low of me?”

“It's no secret that irkens are far more technologically advanced than humans. We know of scientific concepts your species is only beginning to think about, and it still hurts your primitive brains. I'm not saying primitive to be insulting, I'm just saying, compared to us you guys are smeets. I just don't think I could explain hyperspace communications without a whole long physics lesson. Hyperspace travel is just as complicated and sending EMF through it even more so.”

“Okay, fine,” Dib conceded. “So that's probably going to take too long to explain. So here's another question. Your computer can send out whatever signal is needed... somehow. How can my sister's phone receive it, let alone return its own?”

“Signal can hit her phone, receive input of any kind of voice or image data, and come back. Not very secure but I doubt anyone would even think to listen for it so we're good. As for how exactly it works...” Zim checked the time. “I'd need like five hours to explain.”

“Yeah, I don't have time for that. Just... I'm glad it works. Thank you. I kinda wish I'd gotten to talk to Dad, but maybe I can some other time. Just so he'll know I'm not dead.” Dib stretched and got up. “I really hope I don't die.”

Zim nodded. “Me too. Dying would be inconvenient, plus it sounds like it'd hurt a lot. Not a fan of pain.”

“Most people aren't.”

“But hey, we got a lot of people, right? And I watch you guys training through the window. When we actually go to battle, I'm sure we'll be very well prepared and will destroy our enemy. We just have to hit hard, and not give up. Take out irken leaders, and underlings will scramble to figure out what to do, and then we disable their weapons and force them to submit to our superiority, then...” Zim considered, then said, “We have to take out the Tallest, definitely. I... I still have loyalty to them, even now, it's just part of me, but I recognize that they must be removed from their position. Someone else must take over. Someone kind, who can encourage the rest of us to be kind. Irkens will follow their leaders. And gradually, we can introduce the idea of independence to them. Let them speak their minds, do what they want to do, as long as they don't hurt anyone of course, and just... live freely. I really want to see Irk like that one day.”

Dib smiled and rested an arm around him, rubbing his shoulder. “Me too. Imagine how much your race can accomplish if you help each other instead of fighting for dominance all the time.”

“Yeah. Weapons are fun but they don't feed children or heal the sick. Irk needs serious reform. I'm looking forward to seeing it!” Zim glanced over at where Dib was touching him, then looked back, antennae raising curiously. Dib cleared his throat and let go.

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You're warm.” Zim put his laptop aside. “I think I'm gonna go over to the physical therapy department and lift some weights. I can't run because I might hurt my back they said but I can still work on my arms. Gotta actually maintain muscle now with my PAK gone.”

“Yeah. Alright, I'll get going then. I hope GIR brings you decent food.”

“Me too.” Zim stood and gave Dib a hug, watching bitterly as he walked away. “Maybe I'll be able to join your training soon.”

“I'm sure you will.” Dib wanted to go back and keep hugging him; he looked so dejected. But it'd be awkward if he went back now. So he said goodbye and headed out. He couldn't wait until Zim was out of here. He knew from experience that Zim couldn't stand just sitting around doing nothing. Dib didn't like running, but maybe he'll go for a run with Zim once he got out. He'll enjoy that.

He noted that it was getting dark when he stepped out of the hospital. Might as well go to bed, then. He glanced back up at the building, then kept walking. Tomorrow they were going to the shooting range and he wanted to be well rested for the long walk across base.


	13. Consultation

Dib was fairly proficient at shooting, but the alien weapons took some getting used to. The other trainees helped him out though, and by the end of the session he was hitting most of the targets. Maybe not directly in the center, but still, he hit them. They were still killing shots.

The next few days followed the usual schedule, sometimes deviating for different sorts of training, but otherwise it was pretty predictable. And then Zim was finally allowed out of the hospital, though was advised to take it easy so he didn't hurt his back. He was glad to be out though, and immediately asked Dib to go work out with him.

They spent about half an hour running on the track, Zim taking long strides to stretch out his legs. He occasionally complained about not being able to breathe as easily as before, but he still had all his stamina. A few times Zim took leaps, and then would sigh and say, “I really miss my PAK legs.”

“I’m sorry,” Dib said. “Maybe you could build a wearable version of them.”

“Probably. Still, I had them for so long and now they’re gone. Imagine going your whole life with your legs, and then one gets cut off and you have to hop around. I guarantee you’d keep trying to use the missing one. I feel like that right now.”

“I get ya. Hey, let’s take your mind off that. When we reach the line, you wanna race the next lap?”

“It’s a long track,” Zim said.

“Oh, so you’re not up to it?”

Zim scoffed. “Of course I am. You’re on.”

Dib smiled. Zim could never resist a challenge. When they reached the usual starting line, they started running faster. Zim pulled out ahead of Dib easily, and stayed there. Dib was tired, but he tried to sprint forward to catch him. Zim glanced back, grinned, and sprinted too, increasing the distance between them. No matter what, Dib wasn’t able to catch up. And now his chest was starting to hurt from breathing this rich atmosphere.

He chased Zim around the track, and had to slow down after a couple minutes. His legs just hurt too much, and it was hard to breathe. But Zim kept going, the wind flowing through his antennae, his gait strong and confident.

At least, it was until they were on the straightaway heading for the finish. They were probably about fifty feet from it when Zim suddenly stumbled, slowing down immensely, and Dib managed to sprint up to get next to him. He was about to make a humorous remark, then saw that Zim was breathing hard, mouth gaping open, his face flushed pink from exertion and sweat running down his neck.

“Hey, don’t push yourself too hard, alright?” Dib said.

“I… I’m fine,” Zim replied, voice quiet and slurring together. He licked his lips and groaned, “Sorry, my throat’s dry.”

“You should slow down,” Dib advised.

“No, I can do this, I’m gonna win!” Zim raised his head, took a deep breath, and ran faster. Dib physically could not keep up with him. He watched him go, and just focused on finishing.

He watched Zim cross the line and slow to a jog. Dib crossed it a few seconds behind him, and went up next to him. Zim slowed to a walk, gasping for breath.

“You okay?” Dib asked, concerned.

Zim swallowed. His eyes were glazed over, staring off into nothing. “Y-yeah. Perfect.”

Dib saw him stagger, and wrapped his arm around his waist, supporting him as he wheezed. He took him over to the grass, and Zim ended up falling down onto his knees, arms around his chest. Zim took several painful-sounding breaths, and Dib rubbed his back.

“Okay, just breathe,” Dib said.

“Ugh, I'm sorry, I'm just... so out of breath,” Zim replied, leaning on Dib as he pushed himself back up. “This is so weird...”

“I'm gonna assume your PAK made you run better?”

Zim sighed, then admitted, “Yeah, it saturated my blood with higher oxygen than usual so I could run for longer. And I just tried to run like I used to, but... my body just can't really handle it anymore.”

“Well, we should walk around, you'll recover better if you're moving instead of just sitting still after all that. You need to keep your blood circulating.” Dib walked around with him, his arm against Zim's back to support him. Zim just focused on breathing as they walked, stretching out his arms above his head to help with blood flow.

They headed back to the housing building. Zim's room was next to Dib's and all his stuff had been moved there from the hospital, and Zim was well at work making the small dorm cozy for himself.

“Well, I need to shower off, what do you have to do for the rest of today?” Zim asked at the door to his room.

“Um, we're going over irken military strategy in class this afternoon,” Dib said.

“Ooh, now that'll be fun! We employ a wide range of strategies depending on who we're up against and not to brag or anything but I think many of them are quite efficient...” Zim cleared his throat, then said, “Heh, we've had a lot of time to get good at it. Well, I hope you enjoy the class. I haven't really been given any instructions yet so I think after showering I'm gonna go find our commander and see if she has an assignment for me. She mentioned me helping her with our planning so that'll be fun.”

“I'm sure you'll have all kinds of useful information for her,” Dib said. “Don't hold back, tell her all of Irk's weaknesses. It's for the good of the universe.”

Zim nodded. “Yes, absolutely. The good of the universe. Man I'm gonna feel like such a traitor but... it's not a big deal.”

Dib patted Zim's shoulder. “Good luck.”

“Thank you.” Zim nodded to him before going into his room, and Dib went into his, treating himself to a long shower. When he was done, he spent some time reading before moving along to his next class.

It was as interesting as most, and afterward the class engaged in discussion about how the irkens would probably respond to various strategies, and how they could respond in turn to outwit them. It led to a lot of arguing, people using pieces of paper with drawings of ships to represent the difference forces and acting out attack plans with them, some people even using battle sound effects, but overall it was a productive conversation.

Once released, Dib was fully ready to leave the class to go get dinner, but was intercepted by Zim.

“Oh good, you are here,” Zim said. He still seemed tired from his run earlier. “I need you to come with me.”

“What's up?” Dib asked, following him.

“Veldrin and I have been discussing ideas for taking on the Empire and she'd like your input too.”

“Why me? I've barely gotten started on my training, I'm sure others here can offer a lot more.”

“You've spent years fighting me and you've stayed alive. Not just that, you've actually thwarted my plans time after time, built incredible devices to fight me, hacked into my technology... You're very familiar with irken technology and how we operate, and you can provide her a non-irken perspective. It'll be valuable, I promise.”

“Well, alright.”

They crossed the base to the headquarters building, going in. They found Veldrin in the main command room, at a large table in the center that seemed to have a holographic surface. She was writing on it when they walked in, and looked up at them. She smiled. “Dib, you made it!”

“Of course. I'm here for whatever you need.”

“Glad to hear it. Zim and I have been going over some ideas for our attack, and while there are still a lot of details to iron out, I'd welcome any ideas you have on fighting them. You've been Zim's rival for years, you know how irkens operate. So tell me about some of your observations. I'd like an outside perspective.”

“Well, alright.” Dib pulled up a chair, and they sat down to discuss it. A few other people, who Dib assumed were high-ranking members at HQ, took seats too, holding tablets. He wasn't sure where to start, so he just said, “So my main interactions with irkens are limited to Zim, though I briefly had to deal with this other soldier named Tak, but she was chased away and I haven't actually seen her since.”

“Tak?” Veldrin asked curiously.

“She was another soldier who tested to become an elite on the same day as me,” Zim explained. “However, due to an... incident that I caused, she was trapped in her training cell and wasn't able to make it to the test. And because those tests are only every seven years or so, she had to spend the rest of the time until the next one working a janitorial detail. Upset by this, she came to Earth seeking revenge against me and tried to take over the planet herself to gain the Tallests' favor. Of course that was unacceptable, Earth was my planet, so I drove her off. And Dib helped, not that I wanted to admit it at the time. I don't know where Tak got off to, really. I feel bad about what I did to her now, but there isn't much I can do.”

“Hm. Interesting. I'm mildly impressed that she was able to ignore her assigned duty to go find you,” Veldrin said.

“Yeah, that is really interesting,” Zim admitted. “Most people would just do what they're told, but she decided not to. She built her own ship out of scrap on the planet Dirt, and even made herself a SIR unit, and then came after me. And her plan was actually really good, she shows a remarkable talent for engineering and robotics, and was able to disguise herself far better than me and blend in perfectly with the humans. Her plan almost worked, and it was only because of Dib and his sister that I was able to get rid of her. Hm...”

“Zim, do you think you'd be able to convince her to join our side?” Veldrin asked.

Zim stared at her. “I don't know, she's incredibly loyal to the Tallest, at least from what I've seen, and I'm not sure I'd even be able to contact her at this point.”

“Do you think she'd be a valuable asset to our team?”

“Absolutely, she's very intelligent, I was just too stubborn to acknowledge it before.”

“Then I'm giving you an assignment. Try to contact her and gauge her loyalty to her empire. Really test her. And if it seems like she has her doubts, try to convince her to join us. If it doesn't work, then fine, let me know. But if she does want to join, get her out here.”

Zim nodded. “Yes, ma'am, you got it!”

“Well Dib, back to you. Tell me about your dealings with Zim,” Veldrin said.

“Alright, well...” Dib got his thoughts together, then said, “Zim's manner of blending in wasn't foolproof, in fact it had some glaring problems, but he nonetheless seemed to follow some sort of protocol. He established a house in my town that looked fairly normal, and below it had all sorts of labs that to be honest I still haven't fully explored. He made a disguise to blend in, and then went about trying to learn about the planet. Sometimes he would experiment on humans to find out our weaknesses. He used many techniques to try and cripple Earth. He's tried to drown us, he's tried to blow us all up in various ways, he was gonna use sonic waves to break the planet apart, all sorts of stuff. None of it ever really worked though, ha, you can thank me for that.”

Zim jabbed his side. Dib cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. But really I don't know much about how the entire military works, but for Zim, he definitely tried to be subtle and I think that's how invading usually works, but Zim is loud and annoying and impulsive, so I usually noticed what he was up to. He mostly just tried to do the unexpected? He'd use powerful weapons and sometimes just attack things, and irkens have very good weapons. And he always talks about how the elite are well trained, tireless, fearless, they can kill anyone and do it all in the name of the Irken Empire. Though despite being an elite he never managed to kill me but you know, he tried. And um... I'm not really sure what else to say about how irkens operate because Zim is the main one I've been around.”

“Would you say Zim employed an aggressive strategy?” Veldrin asked.

“Oh yeah. Really aggressive. He became more aggressive as years passed, becoming almost reckless as he tried to do something, anything that would weaken Earth. But he never succeeded and recently actually had relaxed more, and that was when I realized he was starting to give up. And thankfully, you guys ended up stealing GIR and then we got to meet you and it changed his entire perspective.”

“I see. So I think it's safe to say a lot of Invaders have a large skillset and are trained to handle anything. We'll have to be mindful of them because once we attack, many of them will probably get called back to their duty as elites. Well, we're about to discuss the most modern irken technology, if you'd like to join us. We really need to make an extensive list of what we'll be up against and anything you can tell us will be useful.”

“Sure, I'd love to help,” Dib said.

He listened as Zim talked to Veldrin about the various guns, computers, and other technology he’s used over the years, and Dib would occasionally remind him of something, which Zim would often admit to having forgot all about. Through this discussion, Dib learned that Zim employed very eccentric methods compared to other Invaders. He had already kinda suspected it, but it was interesting hearing Zim admit that he used technology in unorthodox ways and always has. He wanted to be different and unexpected. He never liked doing things exactly the way he was told. People would expect that, right?

Once he got through the list of current technology, Veldrin began asking about what was in development. Zim hesitated, not knowing much himself, and part of him still wanted to keep it secret. But Dib patted his back and encouraged him to speak freely about it, and he did.

“When I was on Vort working as a scientist, there was a number of projects that they said wouldn’t be done for years,” Zim said. “Some of those are very likely completed now and may be brought out against us if this turns into an all out war. One such concept we were tinkering with was a quantum energy cannon that can blast enemies from several lightyears away, making use of the same quantum tunneling mechanic that our ships use to travel faster than the speed of light. So you may not even see an irken ship before it’s shooting your engines off from a distance that would take conventional energy beams a few seconds to cross.”

“Now that is worrisome,” Veldrin said, writing that down. “Where were you on the project? Did you make any substantial breakthroughs?”

“During my time there? No. They were still having trouble keeping the beam collimated. It tended to spread out too much to do any real damage, and you know it’s a lot harder to keep light from diverging than solid matter. I wasn’t actually on that project but I heard a lot about it. Who knows where it’s gone since I left for Invader training. If we’ve figured out how to do it properly, I haven’t heard about it.”

Veldrin nodded. “Understood. Do you think you may be able to get data on it?”

“I may be able to. I do have a contact at Vort who may be able to get me information on it. We’re not on the best terms unfortunately but maybe if I apologize to him he’ll help me out.” Zim wrote a note for himself.

“That’s all I can ask for. So, besides the quantum tunneling laser, what else do you have?”

Zim thought about it, and Dib said, “Hey, weren’t you bragging a while back about how irkens were on the verge of a major defensive breakthrough?”

Zim perked up. “Oh, oh yeah! So I already explained what the hulls of our ships are made of, it’s a powerful alloy that is very difficult to pierce, but repeated battering can break through it. Apparently a team was working on creating an even stronger variant of the alloy. It would be more expensive, and only ships like the Massive and those carrying high ranking officials will be able to receive it. But that may make it difficult to fight irken forces if they’ve begun installing the new hulls.”

“How long until they do that?” Veldrin asked.

“I couldn’t tell you. It was very recently that I found out they were working on it. It’s probably still going through stress testing and it’s too risky to apply it to operational ships. I did a little digging myself and found that they were having problems with it cracking if strain was applied at the joints, so they’re probably ironing that out.”

Dib rubbed his chin. “It definitely won’t be good for us if they improve their ships’ defenses. We should move fast to get a plan together and mount our attack.”

“I know,” Veldrin agreed. “Especially as the Tallest are aware of our existence. We did a quick raid of an irken held moon to destroy a mining operation used to gather raw materials used in an assortment of military activities. None of our ships were captured but we were definitely seen and word got back. They know these aren’t unrelated attacks. They’ll be on guard now. Which is unfortunate as our next step is to start liberating entire planets instead of just messing with their supplies. I want you to help me put together the order we’ll do it in. The most efficient way to get from planet to planet, without getting killed in the process.”

“A difficult task, Irk controls approximately twenty-seven planets now,” Zim replied. “But I will research and list every single one of them as well as what I feel should be the priority for each. But in terms of seeking out allies, I believe our first stop should be Meekrob. As we know, Irk has still not managed to conquer them even after spending years trying to do so. Their strength rivals our own. The war is at a standstill there but if the rebellion arrives, we can easily turn the tide in Meekrob’s favor. Once their ships are able to leave the planet again, we will gain a powerful ally.”

Veldrin nodded in agreement. “Absolutely. We should begin plans to liberate Meekrob immediately.”

“I’ll help with whatever I can,” Zim promised.

“Me too, I’d like to help,” Dib replied.

Veldrin looked over at him. “You’ve already assisted me enough. For now, me and Zim need to have a very serious discussion about what the alliance is up against. You still have training to do. I would encourage you to return to your room and focus on studying.”

Dib gave her an annoyed look. “I know most of this stuff-”

She raised her hand to cut him off. “I’m sorry, I know you do, but I really can’t seem like I’m playing favorites. If I allow you to immediately become a consultant before you properly complete your training, other trainees will begin demanding various roles before they’ve completed theirs too. Just finish your classes and take your exams, and when you are officially ready to contribute to the rebellion, then you can come work here with us. Besides, there’s always more you can learn.”

Dib slowly got up. “Alright. I guess I don’t want to cut any corners. I’m probably not the only one who’s had dealings with irkens and the other trainees are probably just as qualified as me to talk about this stuff. I’ll go study. Sorry, I’m just really excited about taking down the Irken Empire.”

Veldrin smiled with understanding. “I know. I think we all are. And you’ll have your part to play just like everyone else. Just get through your training first, alright? There’s only a few more weeks left of it anyway.”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll head back to my dorm then. See you later, Zim.”

Zim said goodbye, and Dib headed out. He really did want to keep helping them, but he knew there wasn't much more he could say today. He knew almost nothing about Meekrob. This was something for Zim and the officers to discuss without him.

Dinner was brief and light, and then Dib was going back to the dorms. When he got back to his room, he grabbed his study guide and crawled into bed, flipping to the chapter about Meekrob. At the very least he could familiarize himself with what they'll be up against, because he had the feeling they'll be attacking it very soon.


End file.
